Staff Writer
The Board of Education
appointed Matthew Wight as principal of Apex Friendship High School on October
7. Wight will be leaving Apex High School January 1, 2015.
Apex Friendship will
open in August, 2015 with an estimated 1,300 9th and 10th graders.
Upperclassmen and those with upperclassmen siblings will stay at their current
schools. Wight said, “This is a guess on my part, but perhaps as many as 30
percent of incoming freshman might be impacted.” He then added, “Based on the
proposed district lines, it may impact Holly Springs more than Apex.”
On his decision to
leave, Wight explained, “It’s a career decision. The opportunity to open a new
school does not come often in one’s career as a principal and it is in a lot of
ways considered the greatest compliment that a principal can have.” Wight went
on to say, “It wasn’t easy but as people know in life, if you don’t take
advantage of an opportunity then sometimes you miss out.”
Wight’s replacement has
yet to be announced. Wight predicts an interim principal will be considered.
“If you look in Wake County the last couple years, what the practice has been
is they would put an interim principal in to have a transition from the leaving
person to the permanent person,” Wight said.
As far as an Apex assistant
principal taking the spot, Wight clarifies, “I think several of them would be
worth consideration. They’ve been here and they know the culture, but again I
would say that typically in Wake County they don’t give people high school as
their first principalship.”
Wight will be allowed to
take up to 10% of the Apex staff along with him. “I’m going to be building the
school from nothing so it will be my intention to put together the strongest
staff possible,” said Wight. “People who are interested will apply and I’ll
interview them about what their vision for the new school is and what they
could provide.”
It is still unclear if
Wight will be handing 2015 seniors their diplomas. “That would certainly be my
wish. That’s something that probably my area superintendent would have to
decide.” Wight added, “Hopefully, I’ll be at least giving one senior her
diploma.”
This won’t be Wight’s
first time opening a new school. He says he was fortunate enough to open Salem Middle.
“It’s exciting because you get to hire the whole staff. You get to pick the
mascot, you pick the colors, and you’re bringing together a brand new group of
students. It’s just a great experience to create that new entity,” said Wight.
When asked what he would
miss most about Apex, Wight said “the people” and referred to his eight years at
Apex as “some of the best years of my life.”
“Part of me wants Apex
to know there was an Apex long before I came and it was a great school. There
will still be an Apex High School after I leave and it will still be a great
school,” Wight said.
The day after his
meeting with the staff, Wight e-mailed his co-workers thanking them for their
dedication and support. Wight wrote, “I consider myself and my family truly
blessed to have been part of the Apex High community and I will always treasure
the memories and relationships that I found here.”
As Wight embraces this opportunity, students and faculty will be wishing him the same thing he has reminded us after every announcement - “Make it a great day.”
