BRUNSWICK — High school Principal Art Abelmann resigned on Wednesday, effective immediately, four weeks before the end of the school year.
The School Board accepted Abelmann’s sudden resignation at a special budget meeting Wednesday night, Assistant Superintendent of Schools Greg Bartlett said.
He said Abelmann resigned for personal reasons, and declined further comment.
Abelmann was approaching the end of the first year of a two-year contract with the School Department that began last July. He said last May that he hoped to finish his professional career in Brunswick.
“At this point in my career, I’m trying to find a place to settle down,” he said.
Before Abelmann came to Brunswick, he abruptly resigned as principal from Aspen High School in Colorado in November 2011.
He had eight months left in a two-year contract when he left the Colorado job, citing the death of a family member and disagreements in education philosophy as reasons for his departure.
“It was certainly a mismatch,” Abelmann said. “They hired me as an agent of change. … It became clear that we just weren’t on the same page. … The faculty was not interested in change, and that was how it had been billed to me.”
Abelmann, who was in a motorcycle accident last fall and missed several weeks of the school year, could not be reached for comment Thursday morning.
School Board Chairman James Grant said high school Assistant Principal Donna Borowick will be the school’s interim principal. Borowick also served as the school’s interim principal from when former Principal Bruce Cook retired in June 2011 until Abelmann was hired in July 2012.
“We’re OK for now,”Grant said, “and then we’ll decide what to do about filling the position. Donna did a very good job last time.”
In a letter published Wednesday on the high school website, Superintendent of Schools Paul Perzanoski said he expects “the school to continue to run smoothly with no changes in services or activities.”
“During the next several weeks I will be speaking to the School Board about our next steps to have a new principal for the school,” Perzanoski said, “and I will post that process in this venue.”
Perzanoski was out of town Thursday and could not be reached for additional comment.
Dylan Martin can be reached at 781-3661 ext. 100 or dmartin@theforecaster.net. Follow him on Twitter: @DylanLJMartin.
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