by Andrea Ruse
Former Redondo Union High School assistant principal Ben Dale has been named principal of Mira Costa High School.
Dale, donning a tie striped with the Mustangs colors of green and gold, was officially welcomed to the Manhattan Beach Unified School District at last Wednesday’s Board of Education meeting. The board unanimously accepted Superintendent Michael Matthews’ recommendation for the position after what he called a “highly competitive application process.”
“We were impressed by his ability to lead, but also by his ability to listen, his ability to work with people, his ability to be a part of a team,” Matthews, who started with the district July 1, told the school board. “And those he had worked with spoke very highly of him.”
Dale began his first day as Mira Costa’s principal last Thursday.
The highly coveted position opened up in May, after former principal Julie Ruisinger announced her resignation in order to become the principal of a school in Austin, Texas.
Dale said he began mentally preparing himself to lead what he called “the best school in the nation” after learning of Ruisinger’s impending departure a few weeks before the announcement was made public.
“If you’re an educator and want to be around the best, you look forward to working with the best,” he said in an interview Monday. “At Mira Costa, that includes students, teachers, athletics, academic supporters and the community.”
Dale, 43, resides in Redondo Beach with his wife, Michelle, a Lt. Colonel in the United States Air Force, and three of their children – a fourth grader, second grader and preschooler – who all attend Redondo schools. The couple also has a daughter who is a senior at Silverado High School in Las Vegas and an adopted daughter who attends Brigham Young University in Idaho.
Dale is originally from Houston, and grew up in Texas and New Mexico. He received his bachelor’s degree in Spanish in 1994 from Texas A & M University. In 1996, he began teaching Spanish and coaching football and basketball at Little Rock High School in Palmdale before being promoted to Vice Principal in 2003.
He knew by then that he’d found his calling.
“I found it especially rewarding to be assigned a young person and to lend expertise and support and have them come out different or more challenged,” Dale said of his passion for education.
Dale received a teaching credential from Chapman University in Fullerton and an administrative credential from California State University Bakersfield, where, in 2004, he also completed his master’s degree in Education Administration.
In 2004, he moved to the South Bay, after he was hired as an assistant principal at Redondo Union High School. In 2007, he went to Marina High School in Huntington Beach as assistant principal. He is currently working on his doctorate in Educational Leadership at California State University in Long Beach, which he plans to complete in 2012.
At Costa, Dale’s first item of business will be to listen and observe.
“This school is obviously already doing things right,” he said. “I want to allow the experts to tell me all about Mira Costa and what works and what doesn’t work.”
Then will begin the process of connecting with students, which Dale knows can be difficult for the head of a high school.
“I’m not afraid to be a nerdy administrator that’s trying to talk to kids,” he said. “Some principals can be held back by that, because they want to be seen as cool. I’ve already come to terms with the fact that I’m not cool so I have no hesitation to go up to a group of kids and talk to them.”
Not all of Dale’s past students agree about his un-coolness.
In 2004, he formed the Country-Western band “Truckstop” with other 40-something education administrators. Dale was the lead vocalist and played rhythm guitar. The group even played a gig in 2006 at Suzy’s Bar and Grill in Redondo Beach to a crowd that included Redondo Union students.
“It’s almost like he puts on an act at school,” then-sophomore Alisa Bronstein told the Easy Reader. “He has such a different personality when he is on stage and away from school…He is actually a really cool guy.”
The band released its first album, “On the Run” in 2007 and in January plans to release its second album, “18 Wheels: Live at the Orange County Fair,” recorded at a gig on a 12-stop tour last summer.
“For a bunch of over-40 wannabes, that’s a lot,” he joked. “We had to take a lot of naps.”
On August 7, Truckstop will perform at the Orange County Fair in Costa Mesa on the Hangar Stage at 1:30 p.m.
Until then, Dale will be focusing on filling the big shoes he has stepped into.
“My biggest challenge will be whether the principal is good, since this school is already doing all the right things,” he said. ER
