After being Westfield High School's principal for its first four years of existence, Dale Rumberger said Wednesday he has accepted the opportunity to become the first principal at the new secondary school in Lorton.
"I look for the challenge sometimes," said Rumberger, who will officially take over the tentatively named South County High School effective July 1. The school is expected to open in Fall 2005.
Cluster 5 Director Betsy Fenske said the Fairfax County School Board approved Rumberger for the position on Tuesday. He told Westfield's faculty that afternoon he would take the South County job.
"He's had experience starting a new school before," Fenske said.
Rumberger revealed his decision to administrators from Fairfax and Arlington counties at a monthly meeting of the Northern Region Council [NRC] for student activities on Wednesday afternoon.
Rumberger will finish his term as chair of the NRC this school year.
He said he began the application process for the South County job in January. The Lorton school is 1.1 miles from his home.
But along with geography, Rumberger said the desire to head up a secondary school was a large factor in his decision.
"The concept of a true secondary school. Seven-through-12," he said.
Westfield High School initially was pegged to be a secondary school. "It started out that way. But there were some other things that came up at that time in transition where we couldn't annex that plan," he said.
According to the Fairfax County Public Schools' Web site, the South County building will be designed as a high school but it will initially house both middle and high school students. Fenske said the preliminary plan is to have grades 7-10, but that could expand to 11th grade if the community can support it.
RUMBERGER TAUGHT theater arts and the student leadership class at Lake Braddock Secondary from 1976-85. From 1985-90, he was a special-projects teacher at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, and then became the school's director of student activities. From 1990-95, he was a subschool principal at Hayfield Secondary, before taking over at Chantilly.
He left Chantilly in 1999 for Westfield.
Rumberger said he will begin working on South County issues along with his day-to-day job as Westfield's top administrator. He said he plans to meet with Fenske regarding a timeline for naming other faculty. The boundary process for the school is expected to begin in November and continue through February 2005.
Rumberger said he learned plenty from his time at Westfield, and will apply that knowledge to his new challenge.
"Have more patience," he said. "Continue to rely on kids and staff and good parents."