New Principal Appointed For Moapa Valley High School

By VERNON ROBISON

Moapa Valley Progress

Two months after former MVHS principal Rod Adams retired, a replacement has been selected to fill his vacancy. Logandale resident, and long-time school administrator, Hal Mortensen was named as the new principal at Moapa Valley High School, effective officially later this summer.

Mortensen has spent the past year as principal of Ute Perkins Elementary School in Moapa. He said that he has fully enjoyed his time spent at Perkins.
“The Perkins community is such a remarkable family,” Mortensen said in an interview with the Progress last week. “It is truly a neighborhood school. That was already long established when I came there. I appreciate their cooperation and their acceptance of me there. I think they were looking for a local person who understood their local needs. And I hope that I filled that need for them.”

Mortensen was selected from a field of candidates interested in filling the local high school post. CCSD Assistant Student Achievement Officer Jeff Hybarger, who oversees the local principals, said that the selection process was extensive. He explained that he organized an advisory council, made up of teachers and staff at the school as well as parents and community members, to assist in the decision. This council was involved in narrowing down the field of candidates to three finalists.
“I so appreciate the work of that subcommittee,” Hybarger said. “Everybody worked so hard and took a great deal of time considering the best candidates for the position.”
Those three made presentations to an open community forum which took place in late May at the high school.

“Of course, we weren’t required to hold the community forum, and a lot of people were a little nervous about how that would go,” Hybarger added. “But I just felt that the community involvement in this decision was so important. And the experience ended up being very helpful in the process. There are a lot of things that you learn by watching people answer questions in a public environment unscreened . You find out how they handle hard questions. So I think that was valuable.”

After the community forum, the advisory council made final recommendations and the decision was finally sent to the CCSD Superintendent for final decision, Hybarger said.
“I think that Hal was a great choice,” Hybarger said. “He is so very well connected in that community and well respected and beloved. He is also an amazingly hard worker.”

Mortensen said that he was excited to be going back to MVHS as an administrator. He previously served as Assistant Principal at the school between 2008 and 2013.
“I’m just excited for the opportunity,” Mortensen said. “I have been there before so it almost feels like going back home. I am looking forward to seeing our kids in action in the classroom, on the athletic field or in club activities. It will be good to be back.”

Mortensen said that one of his first priorities will be to re-establish the school empowerment team and return it to functioning as it was under former MVHS principal Grant Hanevold.
The school was designated as an Empowerment School in 2008. The designation gave local autonomy in decisions regarding operating budget, scheduling, staffing, curriculum and other elements. Decisions were made collaboratively in a governing committee made up of teachers, staff, parents and community members working with the principal, who at that time was Hanevold. Throughout that time, Mortensen was working with Hanevold and witnessing how this Empowerment model could function.

The model achieved great success at the school for several years. But in the years following, CCSD emphasis on Empowerment receded and the collaborative decision-making of the governing committee was no longer functioning.
“I want to re-establish the school empowerment team as it was before,” Mortensen said. “We were an example throughout the state of Nevada as one of the first early Empowerment schools. It was exactly the way that the legislature had envisioned it. I’d like to pick that back up and have the decisions go back to being made by that group of local stakeholders.”

Other areas of focus for Mortensen will be to built up the post secondary opportunities for MVHS students. This affords students the chance to take college classes during their school schedule for dual credit. The school has worked in coordination with CSN in the past. But Mortensen said that where needs could not be met from CSN, he would seek out other options including other colleges throughout the region that might offer enhanced services to the MVHS student body.
“It is all about having a solid program and then promoting it to the students,” Mortensen said. “We present it in a way to ask: What can you do to get ready for college? How about these classes? And I think we will see a return of interest in that program.”