At a special meeting held on May 14, the Mingus Union High School District Governing Board approved the hiring of Dr. Justin Hartman as the high school’s new assistant principal for the coming school year.
Hartman was chosen by a 10-person recruiting team led by MUHS principal Genie Gee, which also inter- viewed two other candidates from a total of seven applicants.
“Dr. Hartman was selected because of his commitment to academic excellence, positive demeanor, integrity and proven success in a rural high school,” Gee wrote in an email. “Dr. Hartman is the current Principal at Winslow High School and has experience implementing many of the initiatives we are exploring for next year. He understands the demands and rewards of school administration and will be a valuable team member as we move in to our 2.0 plans for the 2019-20 school year. We look forward to introducing Dr. Hartman to all the members of our Mingus team and the Cottonwood community.”
Hartman comes to Mingus with 20 years of experience in education, first as an English teacher for eight years, before switching to administration, including working as a junior high principal, high school principal and art director, spending most of his career in his hometown of Winslow. Hartman said he has long known Mingus through reputation due to its wrestling program and that he liked a lot of what he has seen so far of Mingus and looks forward to join the district.
“The first thing is the culture of the school,” Hartman said of Mingus. “You can get a feel for the culture of any school within the first five minutes after you walk in. It was very evident to me that a lot of people have pride in being Mingus Marauder, and that was seen in everything, from how clean the bathrooms were to how friendly
the students were in the hallway, not only with me, but in their interactions with each other. It was just that kind of feeling. And then when I met the interview committee and they decided to talk about the transition that Mingus was making into their academic improvements and their push for learning in the classroom, it just really appealed to me, and it’s a process I want to be involved in.”
Hartman is bringing his family to the Cottonwood area — wife Candace, as well as twin daughters Madison and Bailey, who will attend Mingus Union as sophomores in the coming year.
In his last year working for the Winslow Unified School District, Hartman was placed on leave — something that both he and Mingus administrators were open about.
According to Hartman, he confronted a man in the community after he had been repeatedly contacting Hartman’s wife. Hartman was not punished by the school district but he was placed on leave during the investigation.
According to Hartman, he had already been considering leaving Winslow before the incident, but the difficulties, combined with the opportunity at Mingus, contributed to him leaving when he did.
“Can I say that happened sped up that process? It probably did,” Hartman said. “You know what, maybe this is the good lord telling us that it was time to go elsewhere.”
Hartman said that although he had also been looking at opportunities at larger schools such as those in the Phoenix metropolitan area, he made the choice to come to Mingus for the chance it gives to work more directly with students and staff in a smaller setting.
“I like to walk around and be part of the school community where everybody knows me, where people can say that’s my assistant principal,” Hartman said. “Those connections are so very important to me and they’re important to the school as well.”
