Part I
Last year it took the School District as long to find a Superintendent, who was sitting beneath their noses, as it does eager newlyweds to conceive and deliver a baby.
But this summer, to find a new Principal for Culver City High School, they only needed the length of time it takes Baby to mess up his first diaper.
Affable and charming, Dylan Farris is an easily-met, educationally well-heeled young gentleman who looks like a cinch to be the best received principal in town in years.
Ten years out of UCLA — all in his adopted hometown — and on his way to a doctorate, Mr. Farris and Culver High officially became joined at the hip (hop) last night — he is a deejay — when the School Board unanimously approved of his selection as the new principal.
The ceremonial elevation of Mr. Farris into the CEO office, at a salary just under $106,000, was not very ceremonial.
You can fit more elephants into an oldtime telephone booth than there were people in the audience last night in Council Chambers, and whispers seemed the preferred tone.
Fittingly, only three of the five Board members were present, Scott Zeidman and the ladies, Kathy Paspalis and Prof. Patricia Siever, and a circling bee was asked to buzz more mutedly.
Cymbals did not clang and drums did not roll, although ex-colleague Nancy Goldberg, a candidate for the School Board, rose to declare that she wished to lead the cheers for the worthy hiring of Mr. Farris.
No one confused this fleeting celebration with “Seventy-Six Trombones.” Mr. Farris’s guaranteed approval was confined, or buried inside, the Consent Agenda, where all cinch items are lumped together in a single procedure.
According to interviewers and sources in the school community, Mr. Farris is not the surprise winner. He was the one logical choice.
Not nearly of an age to qualify as an old shoe, the present assistant principal for guidance and counseling is one of those educators who makes comfort a portable concept, feeling like a quintessential fit wherever he goes.
This could be the silkiest, shortest job transition in years in the District because Mr. Farris worked so closely with departed Principal Dr. Pam Magee, whose abrupt resignation at the end of the school term did not spring a single leak.
Question: When did you know you had the job?
“Interviews were conducted last week, the second round on Wednesday. I had a very good feeling after my second round.”
How did you prepare?
“I have been here for 10 years, and I have been working closely with Pam for so long that I didn’t think anything was going to be put out there that I could not respond to.
“I will be honest with you. I did do a little bit of online research about traditional principal-type interview questions, not that it was of much help.”
What is your background”
“I came from not far away. I grew up mostly in Hollywood. I attended Hamilton High School Music Academy, and I went to West L.A. College, right around the corner.
“I was in the percussion ensemble at Hamilton. But I will be honest with you, that I was not really a musician. I was not a proficient musician. But most of my friends were, and that was my avenue to go to the school I wanted.
“I transferred from West L.A. College to UCLA, and I pursued my studies in history there.
“Then right out of UCLA, I was hired here, and I have been having a great time ever since.”
(To be continued)
