Garfield teacher named new Wantage School principal

SUSSEX — After a year of stops and starts, the Sussex-Wantage Regional School District has found a new principal for the Wantage School. At its June 24 meeting, the district’s board of education unanimously approved Michael Gall as principal of the school. The board appeared to have selected Wantage School special education teacher Robert Coates last summer. But Coates only received four of the seven votes cast in the first round of voting, which failed to meet the board’s policy requiring approval by a majority of the full nine-member board. A week later the board was split 4-4 on Coates’ appointment. He later withdrew his name as a candidate and has continued to teach in the district. Sharon Hosking, a former administrator at the Sussex County Technical School, has served as the interim principal at the Wantage School since principal Chris Yeager retired last year. Gall, 31, who has no prior experience as a principal, has spent the past five years at the Garfield Public School District. Most of his time there was spent as a computer teacher at the K-6 James Madison School. “My mission is to work collaboratively with all shareholders to develop a culture in which all students become lifelong learners who have moral compasses, are enthusiastic, respectful, ethical, responsible, cooperative and capable of having a profoundly positive impact on the world,” said Gall. Gall, whose father was a school custodian and Sunday school teacher and mother was a school lunch server, is planning to be married this month and intends to live with his bride in the Lake Winona Community in Jefferson. The school district continues to search for replacements for Sussex Middle School principal Kristin Touw and vice principal Teri Haight, whose contracts were not renewed by the board.