Manassas Park Principal Leaves School After Memorable Year

As Manassas Park High students bid another year farewell today, they will also say goodbye to the man who has led the school for some eight years.

 Tracy Shaver, principal of Manassas Park High School, said he is leaving his post to take a job in Harrisonburg as principal of its high school.

 He made the decision because it's what’s best for his wife and three young children, Shaver said.

 “The reason for my move was to raise my children in a less-urban area. My oldest child is 8-years-old and it’s not fair for me to relocate them when they get too much older,” he said on Saturday.  “I’m going to miss this place. It’s bittersweet. It really is.”

 He and his wife are both from rural areas, Shaver said.  He is from Oneonta, a quiet city in upstate New York, and Harrisonburg has many similarities to his former home, Shaver said.

 They are both college towns, he said.  Harrisonburg has James Madison University and Eastern Mennonite College while Oneonta has Hartwick College and the State University of New York at Oneonta, where he earned his undergraduate degree. Harrisonburg is located in a valley and so is Oneonta, he added.

 Still, he will miss the school division, Shaver said.

 “It’s a terrific school system, great kids, supportive parents with the best faculty and staff I’ve ever worked with,” said Shaver, who worked as a curriculum specialist and taught at several schools in a neighboring Virginia county before coming to Manassas Park.

 “It was extremely hard, to leave such a great school division and area and the friends we’ve made here,” he said.

 Manassas Park City Schools Superintendent Dr. Bruce McDade said he will miss Shaver.

“I am most appreciative for Tracy’s deep concern for students. His principalship was one where students came first. He cared deeply for children and I am most thankful,” McDade said.

 Shaver worked very, very hard to be certain that his students were successful, and the ceremonies held at the high school were always done with class and dignity, McDade said.

 “This year’s graduation was extremely well done,” he said. “I thought that day was just tremendous. It was the largest and smallest graduations in history on the same day. It was a great way for him to go out.”

 “I loved it,” Shaver said. “How many schools would have two graduations? Not many ... we are a family.”

 A second graduation was held Saturday for four seniors who missed the main commencement because they were playing in the state soccer championship.

 Four state championships in one year is quite a way for Shaver to end his tenure, McDade said.

 “I knew we would have a strong wrestling team and I knew we would have a strong track team and I knew we would have a strong soccer team,  but for all four to win a state championship in one year is very unusual. Most schools are lucky to have one state championship, but four in one year—that’s special,” Shaver said.

 Shaver said that he and his family will be moving to Harrisonburg this month.

 Meanwhile, the division will be conducting interviews for the principal position next week, the superintendent said.

 It’s a two-step process; a committee will interview candidates all day Tuesday, McDade said. The top candidates when then be interviewed the following day by McDade.

 There are no internal candidates, he said.

McDade said they hope to have a new principal in place by the end of June.