Mountain View Whisman names three principals for next school year

The Mountain View Whisman School District has picked existing district leaders to fill principal roles at three elementary schools next school year, rather than making external hires.

The district announced last week that Jose Antonio Vargas Elementary School Principal Vern Taylor will take over as the leader of Castro Elementary School in the fall. Current Castro Interim Principal Acantha Aragon Contreras will switch with Taylor and become principal at Vargas. At Stevenson Elementary School, Interim Principal Megan Pohlman will stay on in a permanent capacity. 

The school board unanimously approved all three moves as part of a personnel report at its March 27 meeting. 

Vacancies arose at both Castro and Stevenson elementary schools earlier this school year when Stevenson Principal Terri Lambert retired and Castro Principal Scott Wilbur took a leave of absence. Wilbur ultimately “elected to resign,” effective at the end of March, the district said in January.

Pohlman and Contreras each stepped in to lead Stevenson and Castro, respectively, on an interim basis. They each had previously worked in the district office. As a result of last week’s staffing announcements, the future leaders of both campuses have now been determined.

With his move to Castro at the end of the school year, Taylor will leave Vargas after six years leading the school, a post he has held since the campus opened. He was picked for the role in 2019, several months before Vargas began its first school year.

Interim Superintendent Jeff Baier said that Taylor has done a “fantastic job” at Vargas and that he will bring his “proven leadership experience” to his new role at Castro. This won’t be Taylor’s first time at Castro. Earlier in his career, he taught fourth grade at the school. 

In recent years, the district has tried to focus on increasing support for students at Castro and improving academic performance at the school. Castro has long had a substantially higher portion of disadvantaged students than the district’s other elementary schools. According to Baier, Taylor will continue existing efforts to implement the district’s Reimagining Castro plan.

Contreras will leave her interim role leading Castro at the end of the school year to take over Taylor’s work at Vargas. She has previously served as the district’s special education director. 

More recently, Contreras worked as an educational services coordinator for the district. In that role, she specialized in Mountain View Whisman’s Multi-Tiered System of Support program, which aims to standardize the ways that the district offers support for students. Her work has been picked up by existing staff and the district doesn’t plan to rehire for the position, Baier said.

The district also doesn’t intend to fill Pohlman’s prior role, in which she was the districtwide director of equity, Baier said. In addition to leading Stevenson, Pohlman will continue to spearhead certain equity initiatives, including restarting the district’s equity committee, Baier added. 

“We’re still committed to that work, but because Megan is so deeply ingrained in it, and has ownership of so much of it … she’s going to continue steering that work,” Baier said.

In addition to her experience as the district’s equity director, Pohlman has also previously worked as an interim administrator at Graham Middle School and Amy Imai Elementary School, according to a district press release. She will now lead Stevenson, which is a choice school that places a focus on parent participation and project-based learning.

According to Baier, while the district isn’t aiming to proactively cut employees, it is looking for opportunities, as they become available, to scale back the size of the administrative staff.

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