With news breaking just yesterday about Principal Bob Celebrezze being hired as Eastmont’s Clovis Point Intermediate School principal, students took to social media to express their opinions. Students, staff, and administrators have reacted in a variety of ways.

“[A new principal] is just somebody else,” social studies teacher Jay Young said in an interview this morning. “You just have to get used to their philosophies, every time you change bosses there’s a little different spin to things.”

This is the ninth principal Young has seen during his time at WHS. “People need to do what they want to do, if that’s what he wants to do, more power to him,” he said.

“I was happy for him. I think the job, a principal job, takes a lot of dedication, and commitment, and Mr. Celebrezze wanted something smaller, I mean, he wanted something different. My reaction is that I’m happy he gets to get that,” Assistant Principal Donna Moser said. “[The school’s size] is not even what it’s about for him, I think. I think he led in a smaller district, he loved his job, and he did this job well, but he knows what the feeling is like in a smaller school, and that’s where he’s most comfortable. That doesn’t make [WHS’s size] good or bad, it’s just different.”

Assistant Principal Dave Perkins declined to comment on questions asked by The Apple Leaf.

Some students say Celebrezze came to an already tough place to be principal.

“I feel like Celebrezze inherited a school that was stuck in a tough place,” senior Skylar Lewis said. “Coming from a school in Idaho to an overcrowded high school, he had to deal with an ongoing lawsuit from the death at the high school, he had to hire a new athletic director … This year he has had to deal with the rape case on the freshman football [bus] and that’s not easy for any administrator. I feel like everybody’s putting the blame on him, although he’s done nothing but make the best out of tough times and dig us out of the hole we put ourselves in.”

Meanwhile, others think Celebrezze has some unfinished business to complete. “He came in and started changing a bunch of things, most significantly the block schedule of course, even though there was nothing wrong with our old schedule. And not only that, but three-fourths of the way through the first year of the block, which definitely has mixed reviews, he just decides to leave and not really stand by what he started,” junior Avery Jones said.

Celebrezze told The Apple Leaf this morning that he will continue to do his best job as principal, and will continue following the direction of Superintendent Brian Flones to finish any tasks Flones deems necessary.

“At this point I think he should have at least stood by his choice in the block schedule and help work through it and make it better. In the end however, I think he was a nice guy and did a good job of connecting with students and having them feel comfortable talking to him,” Jones said.

Executive Director of Human Resources Lisa Turner said she’s “bummed” to see Celebrezze go.

Eastmont School District Superintendent Garn Christensen told the Eastmont School Board Monday night that Celebrezze’s “history of positive relations with students” was a factor that helped Celebrezze secure the new position.

“I think one good thing was how involved he tried to be with the students. He’s at every athletic event, even the unpopular ones, and he’s always walking around the halls talking to students and connecting with them. He wasn’t a principal that just sat in his office and worked behind the scenes,” junior Michael Buehn said.

Celebrezze is the fourth principal at WHS in the last 15 years. “For the juniors, it will be their third principal. That’s where my concern is, when I talk about students. [It will affect] how relationships are built with administrators, the vision or direction of the building,” Assistant Principal Ricardo Iniguez said. “To have three different leaders in their years here, I believe can be difficult. It’s difficult for students, it’s difficult for staff, and it can be difficult for the community as well, because different leaders have different leadership styles.”