By Abbe Smith,
asmith@newhavenregister.com">Register Staff

asmith@newhavenregister.com

NEW HAVEN — The Board of Education Monday night named Kermit Carolina as the next principal of Hillhouse High School.

Carolina has been assistant principal at the school for four years, but is better known as the boys basketball coach.

Carolina, 42, will take over the post vacated by Lonnie Garris Jr., the longtime principal who is retiring. Garris has worked 40 years in the school system, 20 of them as principal of Hillhouse.

Superintendent of Schools Reginald Mayo noted Carolina has big shoes to fill in following Garris, but added he is confident in Carolina’s ability to head the school.

After the meeting, Carolina said he is eager to start his new job and delve deeper into district reform efforts.

“I think that this whole wave of reform that’s taking place is going to capture the attention of our community and make sure they are involved,” he said.

Part of Carolina’s plan for next year involves implementing a new school structure that creates four smaller schools within the larger Hillhouse. Students will be divided among a freshman academy and three themed groups: humanities, education, laws and public service; science, technology and math; and communication, arts and business.

Carolina will most likely have to give up his coaching job, which he has held for seven seasons including two state championships in 2006 and 2007, though he declined to discuss the matter at the meeting.

Carolina did concede that he plans to use his coaching skills as principal. “We are going to take some of those strategies from the court into the school,” he said.

Carolina has generated controversy at times, most recently in the spring when he came under fire for making inflammatory comments about the officiating at a game at Xavier. But Carolina has also been recognized by multiple organizations for his contributions to the community. Last year, he was named Citizen of the Year by the West Haven Black Coalition and in 2007 received the NAACP Youth Leadership Award. Continued...

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Before he came to Hillhouse, Carolina was a history teacher at Riverside Education Academy.

Carolina will take the helm at Hillhouse Thursday, the day after Garris retires.

Also at the meeting, the Board of Education confirmed that Worthington Hooker School Principal Robert Rifenburg is resigning and the process to select a new principal has begun. Mayo said he has interviewed one candidate for the job, but declined to give details about whether more interviews are scheduled or when a decision will be made.

The board went into executive session at the end of the meeting to discuss evaluations for the superintendent. When it reconvened in public session, the board announced there will be a special meeting a 6 p.m. Wednesday to vote on a three-year contract renewal for Mayo.

The superintendent, who took a 3 percent cut in pay this year, is expected to see no pay increase next year. The board also will begin discussions in the coming months to establish a process for evaluating the superintendent, similar to evaluation methods for teachers and principals.

Contact Abbe Smith at 203-789-5615.

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