By Dominic Weilminster
Herald Staff Writer

A crowd of around 75, including a majority of Escalante Middle School's teachers, gathered in front of the Durango School District 9-R School Board on Tuesday to voice disapproval of the district administration's recommendation for a replacement to retiring Escalante Principal Gene Giddings.

The board's final vote on hiring Bruce Hankins - now the principal at North Valley Middle School in La Salle - had not occurred before the Herald's deadline.

Escalante parents and teachers opposed to Hankins' nomination for the position expressed their preference for Amy Kendziorski, who has been an assistant principal at Escalante for the last four years.

Priscilla Shand, an eighth-grade language-arts teacher at Escalante, spoke on behalf of the teachers, saying that if Hankins was chosen, it would be a major hindrance.

"The staff has been demoralized," Shand said. "We were not uninformed or careless when it comes to making this decision, but it seems to us that our recommendations were overlooked. She (Kendziorski) was our unanimous choice."

The district's hiring committee decided to make its final recommendation contrary to that of the search committee, weighing Hankins' experience as a principal in Weld County over Kendziorski's familiarity with Escalante.

"We just selected the most experienced candidate," said Judy Michalski, director of secondary student achievement for the district. "Mr. Hankins has been a principal before and his reference checks and the things he's done at his school are exemplary."

When Hankins, who is a graduate of Fort Lewis College, went to North Valley Middle School in 2002, he faced a school ranked the fifth-most violent in the state with daily attendance levels between 70 percent and 80 percent. During his tenure, Hankins brought average attendance up to 98 percent and took the school off the most-violent list, Michalski said.

Deborah Heath, a parent with two children at Escalante and a member of the school's search committee, said she and other committee members reviewed between 40 and 50 applications based on the set criteria. They narrowed the applicant pool to five whom they chose to interview. In the end, they were to recommend two top candidates: Hankins and Kendziorski.

"We couldn't give our top choice of the two outright, but we could accompany our recommendations with comments and those comments pointed clearly to Amy," said Heath, who also heads the Escalante School Improvement Committee.

Heath said Kendziorski was the clear choice given her familiarity with the school and the district.

"Amy has been at Escalante for four years," she said. "She is very well-respected and liked by staff and parents. I think it would be a terrible loss for this district if she had to leave to be an outstanding principal in another district."

Michalski noted Hankins' strong record at a tough school

"He came into a very difficult situation and really turned it around according to staff, students and parents," she said.

Hankins made statewide headlines and received some criticism after expelling a student for using a friend's gun-shaped laser pointer in a class. But his strict disciplinary actions may have been part of getting his school's violence levels down, Michalski said.

Hankins' background working in ethnically and socioeconomically diverse school districts seemed a good match for Escalante's varied minority demographics and large number of students on free or reduced-price lunch programs, Michalski said.

The school board must ultimately approve the administration's recommendation of Hankins after considering the concerns expressed Tuesday by teachers and parents at Escalante.

Reach Staff WriterDominic Weilminster here .