Bourne Hires New High School Principal
Bourne High School is officially under new leadership. Dr. Lisa Maguire has been hired as principal and will replace Amy Cetner, who held the position for 12 years.
Barbara Starkie, the assistant superintendent of Bourne Public Schools, told the Enterprise this week that Dr. Maguire had been hired following the application and interview process.
Dr. Maguire worked at Scituate High School for the past six years, serving as assistant principal before taking over the role of principal in 2020. Highlights of her tenure there, according to a biography provided by Dr. Starkie, include the development of graduation pathways and increasing access to and participation in advanced coursework for all students.
Before Scituate, Dr. Maguire taught English language arts at Whitman-Hanson Regional High School for 14 years. She also served as the school-to-career internship coordinator, a preK-12 service learning coordinator, the community evening school director and a grants coordinator for several programs supporting student success at the high school.
A search and recommendation committee was established to assist in the vetting and hiring process. Members of the committee each fulfill a different role within the district: Dr. Starkie is the assistant superintendent; Jordan Geist is the district’s director of business services; Christine Borning serves as principal at Bourne Middle School; Jessee Clements is the district’s 6-12 curriculum director; Liza Bar is a high school math teacher; Molly Henricksen-Rowland teaches art at the high school; Dan Nault is a special education teacher at Bourne High School; Kimberly Iannucci is a high school guidance counselor; and Keri Scoffield is a member of the Bourne School Committee.
Dr. Starkie explained that the candidate profile for the position was developed using survey input from the school’s students, parents and staff members. Of the 20 applicants reportedly screened for alignment with the profile, Dr. Starkie said that nine candidates were interviewed in the first round. Applicants were asked to execute a five-minute presentation that discussed their own professional experience and pointed to specific programs at BHS that they think set it apart from other high schools.
Second-round interviews were held at the high school and gave both students and parents an opportunity to participate. Dr. Starkie estimated that 16 students, 10 parents and eight staff members joined the nine-member committee in hosting 25-minute interview sessions.
Feedback from this round was used by the committee to make an official recommendation that Dr. Maguire be considered for the position. Following an interview with Bourne Public Schools’ Superintendent Kerri Anne Quinlan-Zhou, Dr. Maguire was offered the position.
According to her biography, Dr. Maguire lives in Plymouth with her family, where she enjoys kayaking, fishing, gardening and beekeeping. She is a graduate of Stonehill College, where she earned a bachelor’s Degree in English, and later earned a master’s degree in education from the University of Massachusetts Boston and a doctorate in educational leadership from Northeastern University.