Following a week full of high emotions at North Eugene High School, the school appears to be losing its principal.
Principal Nain Muñoz submitted his resignation late last year but had made a late bid to keep the job, telling district officials he had changed his mind.
His initial letter was sent in mid-November, but the news was not sent to staff, students, and community members until Friday, Jan. 10. However, those who had grown to love Muñoz in the year and a half he’s been at North weren’t going to take the news lying down.
This week, signs and posters with slogans like “Keep Muñoz!” and “We love Muñoz ” were hung around NEHS’s school grounds. Dozens of staff and community members also emailed the Eugene School District 4J school board and the superintendent.
At Wednesday’s school board meeting, more than 40 NEHS staff and community members flooded the board room. Three individuals spoke during public comment, urging the school board and district to fight for Muñoz. Those present were hoping their show of support would get Muñoz to reconsider, which he did.
Muñoz sent an email to NEHS staff Friday morning, stating his intent to rescind his resignation and remain as the school’s principal.
However, 4J confirmed Friday evening that the district would not be revisiting his resignation, meaning his role as principal will end at the end of the school year.
“I am very humbled by our staff, and their support in wanting me to stay at North,” Muñoz told The Register-Guard Friday. “Their unwavering heart is very inspiring to me. It is a big reason why I have asked our district to rescind my resignation.
“North Eugene is very special, and a massive reason for that is the staff that work there.”
‘He’s been an amazing principal’
Clair Wiles has been a teacher at NEHS for 25 years, having spent her entire educational career at the school. She said in her time at NEHS, she has seen 26 different administrators come and go — between the head principal and two assistant principals employed. She said Muñoz embodied the qualities many staff at North valued.
“A lot of us just were in shock because he’s been an amazing principal,” Wiles said. “He is an amazing principal. He’s still our principal, and has really connected with so many of our kids and our families and our teachers.
“It was really what we were looking for in a leader, so it was just it was really hard to get that news.”
Brandy Wormdahl, a physical education teacher and coach, is a North alum and has been teaching at the school for 30 years. She said she’s never seen this level of support for an administrator.
“I’ve never seen students, teachers go to bat like this,” Wormdahl said. “Teachers that have been there for one year to teachers, like me, who’ve been there for 30 years. I mean, to put your neck out and to send an email to a board and your boss’s boss, come on.”
Wormdahl said when Muñoz came to NEHS in the fall of 2023, he met with staff and made himself a known presence to students. She said his leadership style was to “be of service” to the North community.
“That was super refreshing and very different from what we’d had before,” Wormdahl said. “Right away, you just see how he connects with kids. It’s just comes as second nature to him. You can always tell whether someone was good in a leadership role if your high school kids know who the principal is.”
What can 4J do to support administrative staff?
According to NEHS staff, it was two 4J district staff members — 4J Assistant Superintendent of Instruction Larry Williams and 4J Director of Secondary Education Greg Borgerding — who shared the news in a stand-up meeting Friday afternoon, not Muñoz himself.
“This has already been a hard year, losing Amy, and I think the way we got the message was the most difficult. It wasn’t coming from Principal Muñoz himself, we were hearing it from the district,” Wiles said, referencing art teacher Amy Samson who died suddenly in October. “The last time we had a stand-up meeting, we were finding out that we were losing Amy.”
Wormdahl said the delivery of the resignation left staff confused.
She believed the method led to staff’s speculation around the resignation over the past week.
“It was just kind of a gut punch,” Wormdahl said. “Our staff, unfortunately, has had that news before, but we’ve never had it delivered in that way. Usually, when someone’s leaving their current role, they are the one who tells you.”
When Muñoz’s resignation was announced, 4J stated it would organize opportunities for parents and guardians to give input on qualities they’d like to see in NEHS’s next principal.
“They want us to just keep talking about, ‘What do you want in your next leader?’ And we’re just like, ‘We don’t want to talk about that. Here’s all the things, but he’s got them,'” Wormdahl said.
Wiles said that, more than focusing on specific qualities, she hopes 4J will have more conversations about retaining principals and supporting them in their roles. While 26 administrators in 25 years might seem like a lot, Wiles does not believe NEHS is unique in this — whether at the district, state, or national level. In the 2024-25 school year, 4J introduced 22 new administrators. In 2023-24, the same year Muñoz began, it introduced 15.
“It’s a really, really difficult job. It is demanding. You’re here at all hours,” Wiles said. “There’s a lot that happens in a school in a year, and especially in a high school, where you have 100 staff members and 1,200 students and parents, and you’re that nexus that knits that all together.
“Our focus now is, how do we get better as a system in supporting people being able to take on that role?”
Wiles said she hopes for more support afforded to school-level administrators, who can then offer consistency to schools rather than a constant flow of new leadership styles and ever-changing plans for the schools.
“If we can keep administrators for a longer period of time, I think it’ll be more successful for all of us,” Wiles said. “But it has to be sustainable for them as humans.”
Miranda Cyr reports on education for The Register-Guard. You can contact her at mcyr@registerguard.com or find her on Twitter @mirandabcyr.
