Familiar Face a Finalist for Belmont High Principal

When assistant principal Dan Richards left last year, many around town thought the school district was losing an outstanding administrator.

But a year after becoming Principal of Melrose High School, Richards is back at his old stomping grounds as he was named one of two finalists to be the next Belmont High School principal.

Joining Richards as the last two candidates for the job is Purnima Vadhera, the interim principal of Somerville's Arthur D Healey School, a K-8 "innovative participatory learning community."

Belmont Superintendent Dr. Thomas Kingston, who selected the finalists with Assistant Superintendent Janice Darias, said in the past week that he hopes to name a successor to Dr. Michael Harvey – the current High School principal who was named superintendent of the Hamilton-Wenham Regional School District – by Thursday, June 14, the last day of school in Belmont.

Richards, , had been Belmont High School assistant principal of instruction for the past six years, working closely with Harvey. Richards was a high school teacher in Newton and then an administrator at Peabody High School.

Richards has  two master’s degrees in education: a master's degree in education leadership from Salem State College and a master's from Cambridge College in management, negotiation and conflict resolution.

Vadhera became the Interim Principal of the Healey last July 1. She was named the Healey's assistant principal in July 2010. Before coming to Somerville, Vadhera was an assistant principal at Newton South High School.

She earned her Masters of Education in Administration, Planning and Social Policy from Harvard University in 2004 and completed a Principal Fellowship at Brighton High School.

Vadhera, who is fluent in five languages – English, Spanish, Italian, Hindi and Urdu – started her educational career as a student teacher in  biology at Somerville High School in 1995.

The public will get their chance to meet, greet and question the candidates tomorrow, June 12, at the Belmont High School auditorium. Vadhera (who will be coming in on the last day of classes in Somerville) will be greeted from 7 p.m. to 7:45 p.m. and Richards from 8 p.m. to 8:45 p.m.