By Mary O’KEEFE

Principal Doug Dall has announced his resignation from Clark Magnet High School.

“Doug has exceeded every expectation [as a principal],” said Glendale Unified School District board member Greg Krikorian.

He spoke both as a school board member and also as a parent.

“Two of my children went through Clark,” Krikorian said. “[Doug’s] passion, love and dedication for our district and our students will forever reverberate throughout our district.”

Dall began his career with Glendale Unified School District in 1980 as a technical education teacher at Woodrow Wilson Middle High School. While there he taught wood shop, technical theatre, desktop publishing and computer aided design.

While at Wilson he began writing grants to help establish video production at the school and built the first computer lab in the district. He then moved to Herbert Hoover High School as dean of students in 1986 and, among his other duties as supervising students, he worked as staff liaison for the construction of a new building to accommodate the arrival of ninth graders to campus.

He moved to Glendale High School as assistant principal of curriculum and instruction.

All of this prepared him to take the helm as the planning principal for the new Clark Magnet High School in 1998.

His background was a perfect combination of teaching, organizational and leadership skills, with an added component of grant writing. Many trace Clark’s long list of awards and accomplishments directly back to Dall and the staff he leads.

Clark is a two-time National Blue Ribbon School, two-time California Distinguished School, seven-time Title 1 Achieving School, a two-time California Exemplary Career Technical Education school, a California Gold Ribbon School and a CSBA Golden Bell Award winner.

During his tenure, Clark has also been recognized by the Council of Chief State Schools Officers (CCFFP) as one of the 30 most successful high schools in America, as one of Los Angeles’ best high schools by LA Magazine, Newsweek and U.S. News and World Report. The school is also a multiple year recipient of the Lexus Eco Challenge Award for research in environmental sciences.

In recent years Dall has used his grant writing knowledge to help the district attain many grants including a $6 million California Career Pathways Trust Grant in collaboration with Glendale College, Burbank Unified School District, California State University Northridge and the Verdugo Workforce Investment Board.

In a letter to the district Dall stated, “It has been my honor and privilege to serve the Glendale Unified School District for the past 36 years but, as with all things, they must eventually come to an end.”

He further stated that he will be moving “on in his life.” Like many of his predecessors he plans to take his career knowledge to work with other districts in need of the expertise he has used to help make Clark Magnet one of the most highly recognized schools in the nation.

Krikorian added when the district decided to develop Clark as a science and technology magnet school it worked with Cisco Systems and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Dall and his team took that vision and developed Clark Magnet into the award winning school it now is.

“Clark is now the standard that other schools look to,” he said.

The GUSD Board of Education issued a release that, after much consideration, it plans to appoint Lena Kortoshian as the second principal of Clark Magnet High School. Kortoshian has been an educator for 27 years and has been the associate principal at Clark for the past six years. Kortoshian’s selection will allow for a smooth transition for Clark in June.

  Mary Okeefe