HS Principal Tom Woodruff announces retirement

   The Caledonia Mumford School District will be on the search for a new high school principal in the coming months. Superintendent David V. Dinolfo announced on Wednesday, January 9, 2008 to faculty and staff the retirement of High School Principal Thomas Woodruff. In a memo to faculty and staff, Dinolfo said the board of education regretfully accepted Woodruff’s resignation at its January 8 meeting, wishing him best wishes on his decision to retire effective December 31, 2008.

   Woodruff has been high school principal at Cal-Mum since August 2001 and an important member of the administrative team, Dinolfo said. During his tenure, Cal-Mum High School earned many academic and extra curricular honors and increased the number of advanced placement, college credit-earning courses offered to students. In 2007, CMHS was recognized for having the highest graduation rate in the area.

   "Tom has displayed a strong work ethic, a commitment to students and a keen understanding of what it takes to have a good school. His legacy to Cal-Mum is one of raising student achievement, instilling great school spirit and good discipline," commented Superintendent Dinolfo.

   The superintendent and board of education will now begin the process of searching for Woodruff’s replacement. A plan and timeline will be outlined in the next few weeks with the goal of making an appointment at the start of the 2008 school year with a start date of January 1, 2009, providing an opportunity for transitioning.

   In the meantime, there’s still plenty of work to be done, said Woodruff, who’s preparing for Regents exams. Over the next several months he’ll continue his course of providing a balanced program for CM high school students that focuses on the 3 A's: academics, the arts, and athletics.

   "A few of the initiatives we are working on include: raising the level of rigor in many courses through the use of Activboards in the classroom, phasing in our new mathematics curriculum, conducting a school-wide mock Presidential election, and implementing recommendations gathered from our study of area guidance programs," Woodruff remarked.

   As June approaches, Woodruff will look toward presiding over his final commencement ceremony and presentation of the Class of 2008.

   "I’m very happy for Tom. He’s had an outstanding career and I’m glad he’ll have an opportunity to celebrate with his last graduating class in June and also to start a new school year in the fall. Nobody starts up a school year like Tom Woodruff," Dinolfo remarked.