MHS Principal Mike Agnitch

By Wendilyn Grasseschi
Mammoth Lakes Staff Writer

Mammoth High School Principal Michael Agnitch announced this week that he will be retiring at the end of the school year.
His decision leaves Mammoth Unified School District scrambling to fill not just the superintendent and elementary school position left vacant by Frank Romero’s termination, but yet another principal position.
Even as district officials wished him well and praised Agnitch’s service to the school, some in the community consider the situation an opportunity, more than a hardship.
“It’s a changing of the guard,” said Kathy Cage, a parent of a high school student. “I think it’s an opportunity to make some good changes.”
Agnitch is widely seen as a technically competent administrator, but his time at the high school has been marred by some controversy. Some parents have been vocal about their frustrations with dropping test score results, the loss of a senior football team this year, and what they say are a lack of “people skills” on the part of Agnitch.
Cage has been one of those parents. She believes Agnitch is a good administrator, but has said in past school board meetings that there are serious problems at the high school. On Feb. 3, she said she would have liked to see more communication between the high school administration and parents and community members and she said school spirit is “at zero.”
“There has to be some way to get the students to care about their test scores, to see them as relevant,” she said this week. “As is, they are fairly hostile to the administration and they think it’s a way to stick it to the administration.”
School board members were more restrained.