On April 5, Clark Magnet High School students received a phone call from Principal Douglas Dall announcing his retirement at the end of this school year.

According to Dall’s letter to former interim Supt. Joel Shawn, Dall began his career in the Glendale Unified School District in 1980 as a career technical education teacher at Woodrow Wilson Junior High School. After six years, he moved to Herbert Hoover High School and became the Dean of Students. Eight years later, Dall moved to Glendale High School as the Assistant Principal of Curriculum and Instruction. Finally in 1997, he began assisting the planning of Clark, where soon after he became principal.

Dall said that Clark’s greatest achievement is the fact that the school still exists after enduring a number of challenges. “We’ve had 17 years of financial crisis, District leadership changes and changes in state objectives in educational curriculum, yet we’ve succeeded in creating a new testament in task force planning and a smooth structure to educational curriculum,” he said.

Many of the faculty have worked with Dall for many years. Randy Tiffany, a health teacher who has worked at Clark since it opened, said, “The modern-day father of Clark will be severely missed due to the fact that he created this modern Clark in 1998 with the help of a few other people. I don’t believe it will be the same ever again.”

John Over, the animation instructor who has worked at Clark for two years, said that he is happy for Dall. “He deserves a very peaceful retirement,” he said.  As a new teacher, Over says that he could not have received better support or had a better mentor. “He in my mind has joined the pantheon of people that have done something meaningful in their life,” he said. “He is a unique man of vision and action. I will greatly miss him.”

Current Associate Principal Lena Kortoshian will serve as his replacement starting the 2016-17 school year. According to several students at Clark, Dall’s presence at the school will be missed; however, some students said that they will be looking forward to seeing Kortoshian’s changes in her position as the principal for the upcoming school year. “Mrs. Kortoshian is a hardworking individual and always promotes student success at the school,” said junior Alejandra Lopez. “It is evident that in her heart, students come first,” she said.

Marah Hasan, a junior, said that Kortoshian is “student-centered” and always gives students another chance. “I think a school achieves when the principal is able to connect with the students, and because of this, I feel that Mrs. Kortoshian will definitely make a great principal.”