Dean of Students Hamisi Tarrant will be leaving Haddonfield Memorial High School in November to become the Assistant Principal at Carusi Middle School.
Tarrant was offered the position of assistant principal in early September. It was not an easy decision to make. Mr. Tarrant describes the feeling as bittersweet. “The feeling I come up with is bittersweet, right? It hasn’t been, like, woo! Like, I’m all joyous. Like, a lot of people are kind of happy, but it’s also sad, right?”
He has spent six, almost seven years working with the people of Haddonfield. During the years, he has helped strengthen the community.
Madi Heberley, a junior at HMHS, shared her thoughts on Mr. Tarrant leaving. “He made the office seem something that was approachable…when people get called down to the main office. You usually think, like, ‘oh, I’m getting in trouble’. But he made it seem like we could figure this out and would get to the bottom of things and hear all the sides. I remember being called down once just because I was a bystander of something, because he actually wanted to figure out if people were okay. He’s had an effect on all the students, making sure everything is actually understood and heard, and all sides are seen, and I hope our next person does that; actually cares for the students like he obviously did.”
Tarrant has made a lasting mark on Haddonfield. During his tenure in the district, he created the Black Student Union at the high school and the African-American Culture Club at the middle school. The Jewish American Culture Club and the Asian American Culture Club were created while he was Dean of Students as well.
Work being done for the students of color in Haddonfield is something that is extremely important to Dr. Tarrant. Though it is a big change and it is sad to see Dr. Tarrant leave, it is important to remember that change is good even when it’s hard. Dr. Tarrant states, “ It’s never, it’s never easy to change, but, you know, my former kind of mentor, he was a superintendent at Cherry Hill, and he basically was like, you know, you should look to grow every seven years, right? Whether that’s changed positions, you know, or big life changes because you change. And then after that seven-year mark, you find yourself being static and not growing. And so, you know, I kind of live by that philosophy, even though I sometimes change faster than seven years, but seven years is a marker to really, you know, make personal growth and change.”
