Dodig Wants Staples Principal Job Permanently; Vows to Remain 5 Years

By Jonathan Thrope

John Dodig, the interim principal of Westport’s Staples High School since last October, said today he wants to do away with the interim label and become the school’s long-term leader.
John Dodig (meeting with community members today): Being with students makes me feel “young, happy, vibrant.” Gordon Joseloff/WestportNow.com photo

Addressing about 15 teachers, parents, and reporters at a “meet the finalist candidate session” at Town Hall this morning, Dodig, 61, said that if selected for the job, he would remain at Staples for at least five more years.

“I had no idea that the fit would be as good as it is,” Dodig explained. He said being with the students “makes me fell young. It makes me feel happy. It makes me feel vibrant.”

His announcement was an unexpected twist in the principal search that began in October when former Principal John Brady, who himself started as interim principal but later took the job permanently, left to become the superintendent of the Amity, Conn., school district.

In May, Diana Lindsay, principal at Ridgefield High School, was introduced to the Westport community as the lone finalist for the job of Staples principal. But a day after meeting with Westport students, teachers, and community members, she abruptly withdrew her candidacy.

Once she was no longer an option for next year, many assumed that Dodig would continue to be interim principal until a replacement could be found.
However, it came as both a surprise to him, and the community members at the meeting, that he planned on staying at Staples for five more years.

Initially, Dodig explained, he never thought his tenure at Staples would ever last more than a year. After retiring as headmaster of Fairfield High School in 2004, following 11 years on the job, he thought his teaching career was over.

However, after having the first summer off since being 13 years old, Dodig was approached by Westport’s Superintendent Elliott Landon and asked to fill in as interim principal following Brady’s departure. Dodig said he agreed to be principal with the sole intention of staying for just a year.

However, according to Dodig, he first began to reconsider his decision while watching the Staples Player’s production of “Cabaret” in November. While watching the musical, he said, he could not believe that a public school was putting on such a fantastic performance.

He explained that he is an “old theater guy” and he was extremely impressed by what the Players had put together.

In December or January, he told Landon that, if needed, he would stay at Staples for another year and then just two or three weeks ago, he decided he would make at least a five-year commitment to Staples.

If he gets the job, it will mark the fourth school he has been principal at in his lengthy 35-year teaching career which began in Bahgdad, Iraq. There, he explained, he lived in a monastery and taught for a year. However, he had to leave for safety concerns after the Baathists got control of the country.

After fleeing Iraq and “hitchhiking around the world” with some friends, he returned to the United States where he became a math teacher at a junior high school in New Haven. There, while working for nine years, he introduced algebra into the curriculum for gifted students. Soon, the course expanded to the point where he even taught it after school.

Then, following the recommendation of his wife, he became assistant principal at Daniel Hand High School in Madison, Conn. He was brought in there, he said, because of his interest in the arts, and for six years, he successfully expanded the cultural arts in the school to the point at which he created the Madison Arts Society.

Following his stint at Daniel Hand High School, he got his first principal job at Cheshire High School. There, he held the job for eight years, and was named Connecticut’s Principal of the Year along the way.

Following his lifelong trend of never staying put, he left Cheshire and served as principal at New Haven’s Wilbur Cross High School for just a year. It was a “wild and crazy place” he explained, and he was too old to deal with it.

The next year, he began his 11-year tenure as headmaster at Fairfield High School. He retired in 2004 thinking that he was done working in schools. 35 years in the teaching profession, he thought, was just the right amount.

However, when Landon came to interview him for the job, he couldn’t say no.

Now, after almost a year at Staples, he has ambitious plans for the future. He said one of his main objectives if hired would be to make classes more in depth and not so broad. He would like more classes to delve deeply into certain topics and not cover so many so quickly.

He also says that he would try to implement some sort of internship program for seniors in the second semester so that they have a “meaningful experience” after being accepted into college.

Finally, he said he wants to “give everyone an opportunity to shine.” He doesn’t just want the outstanding athletes and students to be recognized, but rather everyone in one way or another. He wants to let all students have “15 minutes of fame at some point in high school.”

There will be two additional opportunities to meet and question Dodig at noon and 7:30 pm. in room 309 at Town Hall.