RUHS Starts School Year With New Principal

Helping students figure out what they want to do after high school is hard work, but new Redondo Union High School principal Nicole Wesley aims to do just that during her first year as a high school principal.

After a three-year stint as principal of  next door in Redondo Beach, Wesley is embracing her job at RUHS, where some Hermosa Beach students attend.

One of Wesley's goals is to create "pathways" for students to help them explore their interests before high school ends. 

Hermosa Beach Patch sat down with Wesley, 36, to ask about her history in education as well as plans for RUHS (which kicked off the new school year Aug. 30.)

Hermosa Beach Patch: How did your educational career start?

Nicole Wesley: I started off as a teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District at a middle school called Daniel Webster Middle School during the summer.

I had graduated from UCLA and wanted to be an attorney, so I started to go to Loyola Law School. At the end of that summer, I had to go in and sign my loan papers, and I realized that I was going to be nearly $100,000 in debt, and that just freaked me out.

I went home and talked to my parents, who were both principals, and my dad said to try teaching for a year and to save my money and apply to a public law school. That was where Webster Middle School came in.

I thought about it for awhile and realized that I didn't want to go to law school, and it just so happened that the principal at Webster Middle School asked if I would like to stay on staff for the following year, so I did.

From there I went to Cal State Dominguez Hills and got my teaching credential, master's degree in education, and administrative credential while I was teaching at Webster.

Patch: Where did you work between then and now?

Wesley: As soon as I got my administrative credentials, there were three assistant principal openings at Gardena High School because they had just had a shooting on campus.

I was 27 and very naïve at that point, but thought, "Hey, there are three openings. I probably have a shot at getting a job there," not realizing what I would get myself into.

Those two years [at Gardena High School] were crazy, but I wouldn’t take them back for anything because I had to be so reactive, and at times it was chaotic, but at the end of the day I realized there were a lot of great teachers and great students and that it was a really great learning curve for me to have.

There was an opening [for an assistant principal position] at Redondo Union, and I thought it would be a long shot since I only had two years of experience, but I wanted to come to a district where I could be more progressive instead of reactive, so I applied and got the job here, where I was an assistant principal for four years.

As I was assistant principal here, I went back to UCLA and got my doctorate in educational leadership, and applied for the principal job at Adams Middle School, where I worked for the last three years.

Patch: How did you get the job as principal of RUHS?

Wesley: The superintendent appointed me principal, so I did not go through an interview process; that does not typically happen. I believe one of the primary reasons he appointed me was because I previously worked here and the staff knew me. There's something about being on a high school campus; it's exciting to see students progress toward the next level.

Patch: What qualities do you have that would be beneficial for your new job?

Wesley: I think that I am relatable and approachable, and I am pretty outgoing, so when students will see me on campus and they look troubled, I'm not going to stand there and let them walk past me. 

I think you need to have the type of personality where you can easily speak to people, you're sociable and willing to listen, and able to take constructive criticism as a way to improve. I believe that's the type of leader that I am. I want everybody to feel like they have the ability to give input, I encourage that.

Patch: What are your short-term and long-term plans at RUHS?

Wesley: This semester the stakeholders in the community created a strategic plan that has specific goals, including increasing school morale and spirit, increasing the rigor in our college preparation classes, improving our A-G completion rate so more students are eligible to go to colleges and universities in California and other states, and explore other course options for students.

But change takes time, and I believe that some things require baby steps. Down the road, I guess in the next three to five years, I'm hoping we can create pathways for students. When a student comes to high school, they have an opportunity to really explore their interests before they go to college, the military, or whatever they believe they want to do beyond high school.

I want a student to leave here with a competent sense in what they want to do, and if students take the four years they have here to figure out what they want to do, they're less likely to waste time and money after high school.

So for example, if a student wants to pursue engineering, then lets create career pathways for students here where they have to take certain classes that will help them go on to that program in college.  That way the student will either say that yes, engineering is for them, or they'll say they want to explore other things.

Patch: How would you describe the RUHS student body?

Wesley: Spirited—although I've heard that we need to improve school spirit. When I left here, it was incredibly spirited. This is a great student body, though. I can measure that because on the first day of school, we had a guest speaker and the students were very respectful. They're positive and want to perform well, but like everybody there comes a point in the semester or quarter where they're just tired, and it's hard to motivate yourself. I hope that students will really feel excitement and pride for being a Sea Hawk.