STANDISH – Paul Penna, longtime principal at Gray-New Gloucester High School, has been hired by School Administrative District 6 to lead Bonny Eagle High School.

Penna, 57, has lived on Depot Street in South Windham for 30 years. He has led Gray-New Gloucester High School since 2003 and previously spent 16 years in Portland schools as a guidance counselor and assistant principal.

The SAD 6 board of directors unanimously approved the hiring of Penna Monday night. He is subject to a two-year probationary period and will receive an annual salary of $96,578 in his first year and $99,606 in the second. He would then be eligible for a three-year contract with the district.

Penna replaces Beth Schultz of Westbrook, who was let go in April after the school board sided with Superintendent Frank Sherburne after he questioned her leadership abilities. The board initially voted to not renew her contract but after Schultz hired a lawyer, the board rescinded their vote and Schultz was allowed to resign. Both sides signed an agreement to not further discuss the matter.

Sherburne, who came to the district about two years ago, is excited about the future for the Bonny Eagle school system, which he said in entering a dynamic period in which the community will need to decide how the districts adopts a standards-based curriculum. The guidelines need to be in place by 2015.

“We’re all very excited to have him on board,” Sherburne said Tuesday. “He is the leader that we had hoped we would be able to find. His experience in performance-based work and his focus on students is exactly what we wanted, so we have nothing but excitement in regards to having Paul come on board.”

Penna was part of Gray-New Gloucester’s switchover to a standards-based system of education in recent years. Gray-New Gloucester and SAD 57, which Sherburne worked in for nine years prior to moving to Bonny Eagle, were early adopters of the reforms and received grants to aid the transition.

Standards-based education spells out more specifically what students will learn in the classroom, Sherburne said. Penna’s experience, he added, will be a benefit to Bonny Eagle.

“As a district, we were looking for a high school leader that had those fundamental prerequisites and had experience in doing those things. What makes him attractive is one, he’s very familiar with standards and the implementation of standards, and two, he’s very familiar with student-centered classroom work, and that is our focus. We are focusing on our students and engaging students in the education that they are responsible for, and that’s what this model really focuses on.”

Penna said he has learned much from Gray-New Gloucester’s experience with adopting the new approach.

“Standards-based education takes a course description and defines that course description in a form of a standard that then everyone can identify what it is,” Penna said. “Standards outline specifically what you’re going to teach. How you get there gives teachers some autonomy to build that. So it takes the course description and tells me what I’m actually going to learn. We’ve all been in courses that, for example, say we’re going to learn about World War II, and then you get in there and you only learn a small part about World War II. So, standards help teachers define what they’re going to teach, it helps students understand more of what they’re going to learn, and it communicates to parents what their kids are actually doing in school.”

Penna sees his experience and outlook meshing well with the larger Bonny Eagle High School, which has 1,200 students and is a Class A school.

“I’m extremely excited. It’s a great opportunity because it’s a great community that’s looking to transform, and it’s grounded in standards, and they’re ready to move in that direction,” Penna said. “The school board has given that direction, the superintendent has given that direction, so when you have everyone moving in the right direction, it makes for a great place to work. And it’s great work because that’s what we need to do for our learners today. That’s what we need to change to.”

Penna is also making the change to Bonny Eagle for personal growth. After 10 years in Gray-New Gloucester, he said it was time for a change.

“When I left Portland, it was an exciting time to leave to become principal of a community that I had some connections with. We own a camp on Little Sebago. So I knew some people in that part of Gray. But it was an exciting opportunity because I was becoming a principal,” Penna said. “And I think this is another opportunity because [Bonny Eagle] is a big school and doing the work that I’ve been doing in Gray and moving over and trying to scale that to a big school environment in a community that’s ready and willing to make those transitions.”

Penna also said he wants to be an example for students.

“We tell kids all the time to be lifelong learners. But then we never demonstrate it. We should model what we preach,” he said. “Sometimes, you need to put yourself in a place that you don’t know anything about and then try to learn that. It’ll enrich you as a person and learner. So, again, I think I have a lot of skills that will really move that community and that school in a positive direction.”

Gray-New Gloucester Superintendent Bruce Beesley didn’t respond to a phone call seeking comment on the resignation of Penna, which he gave Wednesday morning. Penna said School Administrative District 15 will manage without him as they seek a new principal. He said his application to the principal’s position in Bonny Eagle was “no secret” at the school.

“I’m sure they’ll move on. A lot of things are in place and there are capable people in the district that will make it work,” Penna said. “So I can’t really say I’m going to miss it. I think it’s a good opportunity and a good chance for me to challenge myself in another place and another direction.”

Paul Penna