Bartlesville Schools hire new principals, coach
The Bartlesville Board of Education unanimously voted Monday to appoint a new varsity football coach, principal and assistant principal for Bartlesville High School.
Harry Wright, 37, was recommended for the football coach role by a hiring committee of 10, including Bartlesville Public School District staff, coaches and parents, who vetted more than 50 applicants.
BHS Assistant Principal Michael Harp was appointed to the school’s principal role, where he will fill the vacancy left by LaDonna Chancellor, who is starting as the district’s executive director of teaching and learning.
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Harp has served as BHS assistant principal since 2018. He has a master’s degree in education administration, curriculum and supervision from the University of Oklahoma and has been an educator for 10 years.
Brent Massey was appointed to the role of BHS assistant principal. Massey has been the Principal at Dewey Middle School since 2015 and has coordinated Dewey’s district testing since 2016.
Massey served on the Oklahoma State Superintendent’s Principal Advisory Council in 2019-2020 and coordinated a successful technology grant for Chromebooks for Dewey students. He previously taught social studies at Bartlesville’s Central Middle School in 2009-2010 and at Madison Middle School from 2010-2015. He was the social studies building coordinator at Madison from 2012 to 2015 and was Madison’s Teacher of the Year for 2014-2015. He had previously taught social studies in Muskogee from 2007 to 2009.
Massey was also the head varsity tennis coach for Bartlesville High School from 2009 to 2015 and was named the Oklahoma 6A Boys Tennis Coach of the Year in 2011 and 2015. Prior to that he had been an assistant tennis coach in Muskogee from 2007 to 2009.
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Massey has been a volunteer youth football, basketball, and soccer coach in Dewey since 2015 and is active in the First Baptist Church in Bartlesville. His wife, Tara, is a speech pathologist at Richard Kane Elementary School and their three children attend Bartlesville Public Schools.
For the last three years, Wright worked as the athletic director and head football coach of Lonoke Public Schools in Lonoke, Ark. During his tenure, the team was the 2019 4A-2 Conference Champion and the 2020 4A-2 Conference Runner-up. In his 14-season coaching career, Wright has a record of 96-39.
Wright earned a bachelor’s degree from Bacone College in Muskogee where he was a two-time NAIA All-American and offensive lineman. His wife, Lauren Wright, is a Copan High School graduate and the couple has a 9-year-old son.
This article originally appeared on Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise: Bartlesville hires new football coach, high school principals
