New Woodland Hills principal seeks to establish trust

As the new principal of Woodland Hills Junior-Senior High School, Phillip K. Woods plans to greet students as they get off the bus on the first day of school.

“What I’m looking forward to is just being a positive entity, being an agent of change, being someone that these kids can look up to and confide in and trust,” Woods told the Tribune-Review.

Establishing trust will take time, a concept Woods said he fully understands.

Since getting the job in July, he’s attended local community days and school board meetings. His goal is to get to know the school community and to make himself visible and accessible to the students and families he serves.

“That’s the big word, trust,” he said. “People underestimate the word trust when it comes to education. But building relationships again, and trust, are key, especially with these young people.”

Woods will oversee students in grades seven through 12 at the junior-senior high school in Churchill. He replaces Kevin Murray, who resigned from his positions as principal and head football coach in August 2017 following several controversies involving treatment of students. Candee Nagy, a former assistant principal, filled in last year as acting principal.

Classes begin Monday for grades seven to nine, and the entire student body reports Tuesday.

Woods is joined at the high school by new assistant principal Pamela White, who previously worked for the West Mifflin Area School District, as well as the new superintendent, James P. Harris.

“Right now, I’m assuming full responsibility for everything that happens,” said Woods, who last year completed a doctorate of education at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. “For everything that happens in this building — it’s coming back to me. This is the way I want things done.”

Woods previously worked as a principal in the Penn Hills and West Mifflin Area school districts. Woods graduated from IUP with a bachelor’s degree in education and received his master’s degree and principal certification from Slippery Rock University. He operates a consulting firm, P.W. Diversity and Equity Resources LLC, and serves as a paid diversity and equity consultant to Gateway School District.

“The challenge here is that we have 12 different boroughs that we service,” said Woods, who grew up in Aliquippa and lives in New Sewickley Township. “So the challenge is that I have to be able to understand the unique needs of each of these different entities and then merge it into one called the Woodland Hills Junior-Senior High.”

Another of the challenges Woods will face this school year is rehabilitating the image of the district’s school resource officers, also called SROs.

Despite opposition from some community members, the school board voted Aug. 23 to continue contracting officers from Churchill and Rankin Borough police departments.

Violent altercations between students and a Churchill officer led to community outcry.

A video from March 2015 shows Churchill police Officer Steve Shaulis putting a 15-year-old student in a headlock, slamming him to the ground and shocking him twice with a Taser.

In another video, from April 3, 2017, Shaulis can be seen dragging a student into the high school’s main office lobby before allegedly knocking out one of his teeth off-camera. Shaulis was removed from the school but has not been charged criminally.

Those altercations resulted in a federal civil rights lawsuit filed by five former students.

Woods said such incidents would no longer occur in his building.

“We’re going to work to soften their image, as far as their appearance and as far as their duties,” Woods said of the school resource officers, who will no longer carry Tasers and will dress in polo shirts and khaki pants, according to contracts approved by the school board Aug. 23. “We’re going to give them more instructional duties as far as nurturing, and helping students understand different laws, different interactions.”

For example, officers will be included in discussions about bullying, drunken driving or internet safety, Woods said.

“As opposed to the only time you see an SRO is when there’s a violent incident,” he said. “We want to make sure that they understand that between your guidance counselor, the behavior specialist, assistant principal and principal, we can work out any issues or any problems that arise without involving an SRO.”

Another way Woods hopes to build relationships and address disciplinary issues this school year is through restorative justice circles.

Students in grades seven through 12 will meet once per week to discuss anything on their minds: problems in the classroom, current events, issues impacting the school community or personal accomplishments, for example.

“We hope that having those restorative justice circles will allow the teachers to understand the students, and allow the students to understand other students within their classroom,” Woods said.

Though student discipline is a concern, Woods said he plans to also focus on academics this school year.

“My goal is to put less attention on behavior, correct the behavior so that we can put more attention on academics and achievement,” he said.

He believes in creating fewer barriers for students who should be or want to be in advanced or honors classes. He hopes to identify those students at a younger age by taking advantage of having seventh graders in the building and continuing conversations with teachers about reaching out to students who might be a good fit for such classes sooner.

“A lot of it comes back to confidence,” Woods said of encouraging students to seek out such opportunities. “A lot of it comes back to, ‘My family didn’t go to college, or my parents, et cetera, relatives, didn’t finish school, so I didn’t ever think I could do this.’”

Instilling that confidence includes celebrating all students’ successes — not just the athletes or musicians, Woods said.

“The coaches will worry about the athletes,” he said. “I’m more worried about their social well-being and their mental well-being.”

Jamie Martines is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Jamie at 724-850-2867, jmartines@tribweb.com or via Twitter @Jamie_Martines.