[taxthedeer]

Who is going to become the new principal at MCHS?

[Southsider2k12]

Sounds like Lee Dabagia is taking over.

[Grammy515]

Sounds like Lee Dabagia is taking over.

Wouldn't be a bad thing....Lee is from this community. He spent the last school year building a repoire with students and parents. My daughter is very hopeful that he will be the new principal.
Mr. Fransisconi was not pro MC at all. I'm glad to see him go.......w best wishes in his new capacity in LP Community Schools.

[bandaid19]

Woah... big ripples in our little pond.

[Southsider2k12]

Wouldn't be a bad thing....Lee is from this community. He spent the last school year building a repoire with students and parents. My daughter is very hopeful that he will be the new principal.
Mr. Fransisconi was not pro MC at all. I'm glad to see him go.......w best wishes in his new capacity in LP Community Schools.

I worked with Mark a lot over the past few years. I have no doubts that he really cared about the kids and the school. But I do think this is the right job for him. Some people are made to do certain things in life, but I never got the impression that Mark's best talent was as a building principal. I believe he will be much more successful and at home in this new position.

I am looking forward to Lee taking over and hopefully instilling a lot more involvement in the kids lives in the near term.

[taxthedeer]

Mark is from Portage, his brother Bob took my oldest sister (Tonia the lucky lottery lady from Tony's Lucky Stop) to his senior prom when Tonia was a Freshman.

[Southsider2k12]

Lee Dabagia has been promoted to Principal of Michigan City High School by a unanimous vote, despite some whining by Beth Pishkur about not having another option for hire. (the reality she had an option, vote no on Dabagia.)

[Southsider2k12]

New hire of Assistant Principal Veronica Tobon has been promoted to Associate Principal. This leaves MCHS with an assistant principal to hire.

[Ang]

Wouldn't be a bad thing....Lee is from this community. He spent the last school year building a repoire with students and parents. My daughter is very hopeful that he will be the new principal.
Mr. Fransisconi was not pro MC at all. I'm glad to see him go.......w best wishes in his new capacity in LP Community Schools.

Gee thanks, Grammy....I'm not real excited to see him come here... I agree with you that he wasn't very "Pro MC", IMHO he was more of a "yes-man" to whomever it was beneficial to say "yes" to at the moment. Now he's going to be second in command in LP. Yeah.... (please note the sarcasm). At least he won't be in the schools....

[Southsider2k12]

http://thenewsdispatch.com/articles/2011/0...ab773718915.txt

Dabagia officially named MCHS principal

Lee Dabagia and Veronica Tobon appear at Wednesday night’s meeting. Photo provided
By Deborah Sederberg
Staff Writer
Published: Thursday, August 4, 2011 5:08 PM CDT
MICHIGAN CITY — It’s official: Lee Dabagia will serve as the new Michigan City High School principal.

The Michigan City Area Schools board met in special session Wednesday night to make a decision about personnel changes after La Porte Community School Corp. on Tuesday hired former Michigan City High School Principal Mark Francesconi as assistant superintendent and director of secondary education.

The board supported the recommendations by Superintendent Barbara Eason-Watkins.

The board officially accepted Francesconi’s resignation, made Dabagia, former MCHS associate principal, the new principal and promoted Veronica Tobon, who was hired just one week ago to serve as assistant principal, to associate principal.

Click here to find out more!
Board member Beth Pishkur asked whether the vacancies had been posted.

“Maybe somebody else was interested in being principal,” she said about Dabagia’s job, and asked whether someone else might have been interested in being associate principal, speaking of Tobon.

Because of the timing of the personnel issues, Eason-Watkins said she didn’t believe there was time to advertise the associate principal position. It will be good for Dabagia to have someone he trusts in the associate position, she said, especially when he is so new in the top spot.

Eason-Watkins said Dabagia asked to have Tobon as associate principal.

“We will post the assistant principal’s position,” Eason-Watkins said.

Pishkur voiced her displeasure at the timing of Francesconi’s resignation, “just three weeks before school starts.”

Beryle Burgwald expressed the same sentiment more colorfully, saying Francesconi waited “until the last dog is hung” to resign.

Eason-Watkins said she spoke just Sunday with Francesconi.

When associate superintendent Xavier Botana called Dabagia, Dabagia said Wednesday, “He asked, ‘Are you seated?’”

Although Dabagia spent about 10 years teaching English at Chesterton High School, he said he is glad to be back in Michigan City, which is his home.

After giving her son a congratulatory kiss, Dabagia’s mother, Dana Dabagia, said, “He was born and raised here. He is a product of Michgan City.”

His daughters already are students in MCAS.

The question of residency came to the forefront with Tobon, who lives in Valparaiso, where her husband teaches. She told the board she and her husband recently moved their four children, ages 16, 11, 9 and 6, “And it took an emotional toll on them.”

She said they might consider moving to the MCAS “when the children are a little older.”