New principal named, Celina Record

Wilson named new Celina High School principal Lisa Ferguson, lferguson@starlocalmedia.com May 26, 2016 The Celina ISD Board of Trustees last week named Dave Wilson the new principal at Celina High School. Wilson, who has served as the school’s assistant principal for four years, replaces outgoing Principal Bill Hemby, who this summer will start as the district’s assistant superintendent of maintenance and operations. Wilson said he is “absolutely humbled” by the board’s decision. Becoming a principal “has always been a goal of mine but … I’m not ever going to take it for granted.” Celina ISD Superintendent Rick DeMasters said the district had “a lot of good, quality candidates apply for the high school principal’s job.” “At the end of the day, Mr. Wilson had all of the qualities and characteristics we were looking for,” he said, and is “also very familiar with the culture with the dynamics of that campus, with the staff and with the students and with the initiatives that we already have in place.” Wilson is a native of Newton, Massachusetts. He moved with his family to Texas in his teens and graduated from J.J. Pearce High School in Richardson. He began his career in education nearly 16 years ago. After graduating from Oklahoma Baptist University, Wilson embarked on a career in the corporate world during which he held executive-level positions with companies including Xerox and IBM. In the mid 1990s, he helped build e-commerce websites for businesses. “It was just very taxing personally,” he recalled of the work. “I didn’t want to keep doing that. It wasn’t fulfilling.” A chance meeting with the personnel director for Garland ISD set Wilson on a new career path when he was offered an opportunity to teach web-related courses in the district. “I had given some thought to education,” he said, “because a lot of what I did in my last (corporate) position was a lot of presentations and a lot of working with teams … and a lot of collaboration.” Wilson said soon after he obtained an emergency teaching certification, he went to work for two years at Naaman Forest High School in Garland, where he also coached basketball. In 2002, he was hired by Allen ISD to work at the district’s Lowery Freshman Center, where he said he was encouraged by the principal to earn his master’s degree, and did so in 2011 through Lamar University. Wilson spent nine years with Allen ISD, where he taught technical and business classes and served as the career and technical education and fine arts coordinator. He also coached basketball at Allen High School. In 2012 Wilson was hired by Hemby as Celina High School’s assistant principal. “Bill gave me that chance to get my foot in the door, and I’m forever grateful for that,” he said. “He’s become a colleague and a friend, and it’ll be tough to see him go.” Wilson said he has had discussions with Hemby and DeMasters about how he envisions his role as principal. “We have the same beliefs about kids and how to treat kids and the direction that Celina (High School) needs to go,” he said. The biggest challenge, 45-year-old Wilson said, will be prepping the school for growth while maintaining its traditions. Celina High School’s student body is expected to number around 720 when classes resume in August. “We want to be in a position to teach people coming in, ‘Hey, we have a certain way of doing things that work,’” he said. “We don’t want to lose those core values and traditions.” Wilson said he is “not looking to make major changes” at the school. “We have a great momentum right now. “The one thing I want to try to do is highly encourage [teachers and staff members] to do what they do best, use their expertise to get these kids excited about learning.” Also, he said, “I want more feedback from students. I want them to have a bigger voice in their education.” The Celina High School campus will likely undergo an expansion in coming years, that will include additional classrooms. “It will give us so much more flexibility with space,” Wilson said of the project. “Education now is collaborative. The kids need to be facing each other, talking to each other, moving around the room. ... It’s going to allow this building to sustain through any type of growth.”