For the first time in school history, the school has an all-male administration.

Dr. Jennifer Sebold, former sophomore principal, left during the summer for a position at Parkway West, and Jon Schultz, former freshman principal, left to be assistant principal at Francis Howell.

The Board of Education promoted Rick Regina, former language arts teacher, to the position of  freshman principal and hired Michael McGehee as sophomore principal.

Principal Dr. Greg Mathison said he understands how an all-male administration can be perceived.

“I want the best staff I can get and it just happened to be all-male,” he said. “When we go through the process, we try to find the right fit. My job is to pick the best candidate.”

The candidates have an initial general interview. Then there are student, parent and staff groups involved. Afterward, Central Office personnel interview the candidates. The final stage of the interview process is an interview with Superintendent Dr. Terry Adams, Dr. Mathison and Dr. Jim Wipke, executive director of secondary education.

Dr. Mathison said he hopes people still view MHS positively, depite an all-male administration.

“Our whole staff is reflective of our student population,” he said. “I think we hired some amazing individuals on our staff.”

Eva Johnston, history teacher, said MHS has always had at least one female administrator.

She said girls need a role model and someone to talk to in administration.

“It’s a little disappointing that [female] candidates were unavailable when we needed them,” Johnston said.

She also said it’s important to have people who are in the building and want to do the job.

“I’m sure they are trying to find the person most qualified for the position,” Johnston said. “Timing makes things difficult. They were scrambling to find a person because they found out in July about the opening position.”

Jessie Darnell, senior and president of the Feminist Club, said she prefered a woman administrator.

“It makes it harder for them to understand girls’ needs at school,” Darnell said. “It’s harder for us to get our points across.”

Darnell said it is very important for girls to have a role model to look up to. She said she would feel very uncomfortable talking to men and that Dr. Sebold was the one person on the administration she was able to talk to comfortably.

“I think she was the one to look up to,” Darnell said. “I definitely think that this [all-male admin] could set a precedent at Marquette.”