After four years of dedication, Assistant Principal Tim McDonald will leave Algonquin on Friday, Oct. 22 to fill a teaching position at Oak Middle School in Shrewsbury.

According to McDonald, he has wanted to begin teaching special education for a while.

“It all happened really fast,” McDonald said. “I saw the position available three or four weeks ago, and it’s not often that [the type of position you are looking for] falls into your lap.”

McDonald said that he will miss the ARHS community.

“I love the people here,” McDonald said. “I love the work here. It’s kind of a mix of personal circumstances that had to do with work-life balance and quality of life.”

Principal Sean Bevan notified the student body of McDonald’s departure in an email on Oct. 15. McDonald wished he could have provided more notice, but felt unable to do so until he officially secured the new position.

“The notice wasn’t great to the folks in the community, but I didn’t want to say I was leaving before it was finalized,” McDonald said. “I kept it close to my chest and notified the people I work closest with until the time was right to announce it to the rest of the faculty.”

McDonald is looking forward to using his past experience as a math teacher and administrator to impact special education students in the classroom.

“I’m really excited to see how I approach [teaching special education] like a new young teacher versus as a veteran educator,” McDonald said. “So that’s the challenge of it, which is an exciting thought to me.”

McDonald has a number of responsibilities at Algonquin, including designing the master schedules. He says that it will be “team effort” between the remaining three administrators to fill his gap until a replacement is hired, but he knows they are able to handle it. In addition, McDonald greatly appreciates the work of the office staff and says they will be crucial in helping the administrative team cover his responsibilities.

Bevan hopes to name an interim assistant principal by Nov. 2. This week, there will be a small committee of staff to review resumes. After that, a committee of students, staff and parents will convene next week to conduct formal interviews.

Under normal circumstances, the process would be significantly longer and take place over the summer. However, Bevan assures that despite the process being accelerated, it will not be rushed.

“It’s still important that we get different voices to be part of that process,” Bevan said. “It’s the same process, but shrunk down and accelerated a bit.”