This article has been updated since it was originally published on May 4.
James Crenshaw, the principal at Eastern Suffolk Board of Cooperative Education Services’ Westhampton Beach Learning Center, has been appointed the new principal of East Hampton High School.
Mr. Crenshaw’s new position, approved by the East Hampton School Board on Tuesday night, is for three years, beginning July 1. According to his contract, he will earn $168,000 next year.
He will succeed Adam Fine, the high school’s current principal, who is being elevated to the post of assistant superintendent as of July 1. Mr. Fine is in his 10th year at the high school and has already reached an agreement with the district to become its next superintendent, after Richard Burns retires at the end of the 2020-21 school year.
J.P. Foster, the school board’s president, said Monday morning that the new principal is “a very talented and nice guy.”
“We are excited to welcome Mr. Crenshaw to our district,” Mr. Foster said. “He has big shoes to fill. . . . We are fortunate to have a great administrative team in place for the future.”
Mr. Crenshaw has been with Eastern Suffolk BOCES for three years and before that was an assistant principal at Bay Shore Middle School. He was also an assistant principal and social worker at Longwood High School, which is his alma mater. Mr. Crenshaw credits mentors and supporters from that community with helping him in his educational journey. He said his philosophy is that “it shouldn’t be luck” that students succeed; there should be people to guide them. “I’ve always had a passion for helping students . . . get to where they want to go,” he said.
He said he already admires the East Hampton High School faculty and staff. “They’re there for the right reasons.”
Mr. Crenshaw described himself as an out-of-the-box thinker who likes to get creative. “There is no prototype — no two kids are the same,” he said, “so you have to adapt.”
Mr. Crenshaw has degrees from the State University at Albany, Adelphi University, and the College of St. Rose, and is at work on his educational doctorate at St. John’s University in Queens. His goals include making sure students are “afforded every opportunity in 21st-century programs.”
“But my first goal is to understand the culture,” he said. “I could have the greatest ideas on the planet, but if I don’t understand the culture, those ideas aren’t going to go anywhere.”