NORTHAMPTON — Two finalists for the position of principal of Northampton High School have been announced, with the community getting an opportunity to meet both of them later this month.

Jonathan Bruno, currently a mult-tiered systems of support coordinator at the Berkshire Hills School District in Stockbridge, and Ben Taglieri, an instructional technology specialist at the Southwick-Tolland-Granville Regional School District, are the two finalists for the position.

The finalists emerged from a crop of seven applicants who applied for the position, according to the school district.

Bruno has more than two decades of education experience, having previously served as the director of learning and teaching at Berkshire Hills beginning in 2020. Prior to that, he worked as a special education teacher in Falls Village, Connecticut and served as vice chair of the school committee in the town of Sheffield in Berkshire County.

Bruno had also been one of four finalist candidates for the superintendent position for the Northampton school district, with the position ultimately going to the current superintendent, Portia Bonner.

Taglieri has been instructional technology specialist at Southwick for the last five years, and had been assistant principal at Southwick Regional School three years prior to that. He also has experience working in the NPS district, having been a social studies teacher in Northampton and vice president of the Northampton Association of School Employees (NASE) union during his time there.

The two will vie to replace the current principal, Bill Wehrli, who announced he was leaving the district at the end of the school year. Wehrli became principal at the end of 2022, replacing former principal Lori Vaillancourt.

In a prior interview with the Gazette, Wehrli said he was stepping down because he wished to retire from working within school districts, but expressed interest in doing similar work from his NEASC days, where he provided training and support for school districts.

Bruno and Taglieri will visit NHS to meet students and staff and field questions from community members on April 25 at 6 p.m. in the high school’s auditorium. Each candidate will be given 45 minutes to speak and answer questions.

Alexander MacDougall can be reached at amacdougall@gazettenet.com.