New Mansfield Senior High Principal Jose Hernandez is interviewed by Dillon Carr of Richland Source as Superintendent Brian Garverick looks on.
A veteran educator and United States Army veteran is the new principal of Mansfield Senior High School.
Jose Hernandez of Fremont will begin work on July 13. The Mansfield City Schools Board of Education, acting on Superintendent Brian Garverick’s recommendation, unanimously awarded Hernandez a three-year contract Wednesday evening. His annual salary will be $90,000.
Hernandez was the overwhelming choice among five candidates interviewed by two different committees of Mansfield City Schools teachers and administrators.
Hernandez succeeds Brad Callender, who resigned after serving as Senior High principal the last two years.
“I am so excited about this great opportunity to work in a district with such a storied tradition,” Hernandez said. “I look forward to being part of a team committed to student achievement.
“As I looked around, there were a lot of opportunities out there but not that many that met my niche. As I explored the opening here and found people who care so much about kids, I put a star beside Mansfield.”
After the board’s vote to hire Hernandez, he thanked them and said, “It’s going to be a great partnership.”
Hernandez served as superintendent of Gibsonburg (Ohio) Exempted Village Schools in 2014-15, but left that position to seek a return to a principal’s role.
In a letter accompanying his application to Mansfield, he explained, “I need the day-to-day interaction with students and teachers in the learning process that comes with being a building administrator in a diverse urban setting.”
As principal of Fremont Ross High School from 2008 to 2014 he led that school to its first-ever “excellent” rating on the state report card.
From 2002 to 2008 Hernandez served two roles in the Toledo Public Schools, first as assistant principal of curriculum instruction and activities, then as small school principal of Allied Health Academy on the Scott High School campus.
For 14 years starting in 1988 Hernandez taught Spanish and English in Fostoria, New Riegel High School and Hardin Northern High School.
He also coached football, volleyball, boys and girls basketball, softball and baseball at five schools. He was the 1999 Northwest Ohio Division II Girls Basketball Coach of the Year.
Hernandez served in the United States Army from 1981 to 1985 as an award-winning journalist and public relations specialist at Fort Devens, Mass., and Fort Indiantown Gap. Pa.
He and his wife have put their house in Fremont on the market and intend to move to Mansfield as soon as possible. The couple has four grown children, twin grandchildren and a third grandchild on the way.
Hernandez’s contract will start on Aug. 1. However, the board also approved 15 extended days which will allow him to begin work on Monday.