A finalist for U-High principal will visit campus this week. Paul Beekmeyer will visit U-High again April 25-26 after he visited U-High March 6 for a preliminary meeting. Despite delays in the process, Laboratory Schools Director Charlie Abelmann is confident U-High will have a permanent principal for next year.

Since 2016, Mr. Beekmeyer has served at the Brooklyn Friends School as assistant head of the upper school for academics. He was principal for three years at Casablanca American School in Morocco and was also on the school’s faculty. He has also worked at schools in Afghanistan and Turkey.

The process will allow time for students, faculty, parents and other stakeholders to meet Mr. Beekmeyer during the two-day visit.

Dr. Daniel Gleason, who visited U-High Feb. 25, and Chance Sims, who visited U-High March 1, are no longer candidates for the principal for reasons undisclosed by Dr. Abelmann.

Two additional candidates were scheduled to come to U-High for one-day preliminary interviews April 15 and 17, but were unable to come due to scheduling issues according to Assistant Director of Schools Carla Ellis, chair of the search committee. Their names were not disclosed.

The principal search committee conducted additional Skype interviews during spring break in late March.

“The the structure of the process is still the same, but the timeline has changed,” according to Dr. Ellis.

Although the timeline for the principal search has been delayed, Dr. Abelmann is confident in the committee’s abilities.

“We’re gonna have a principal. We have to have a principal, and I’m not going to compromise, to fill it just to fill it,” Dr. Abelmann said. “Whatever we transition to, I have confidence that we will be transitioning to something that is positive.”