New principal has a plan for IHS

Irvington High School’s new principal doesn’t drink or smoke.

“Coaching is my vice,” Principal Darnel Mangan said. “Coaching is the vehicle that drove me here.”

Mangan is almost certainly the first person ever kicked out of an Irvington public school as a student to return and become principal of a school in the district. He was approved by the Board of Education earlier this summer and began work last week.

He credits sports with saving him during a rough and angry childhood and coaching with giving him purpose in life.

“I don’t hang out,” Mangan said. “I go to work, go to practice and I go home.”

A 39-year-old married father of three, Mangan lives in Irvington with his family and dog. He is currently working on getting his doctor of education degree from Liberty University.

At Irvington High School, Mangan will be responsible for 170 employees, including six administrators, eight counselors, 120 teachers and support staff in various other areas. He will also be an assistant football coach, a position he has held at the school for the last two years.

He was born in Irvington to a mother of four and a father of 22 who was not in his life. He has lived in every ward in the township. He has also lived in Newark, where he moved with his mother after he was kicked out of the Florence Avenue School at the end of seventh grade.

“As a youth, I was a little rough around the edges,” Mangan said, adding that he was never a bad student and never failed a class but had some behavior problems.

“I was very deviant as a youth, crying out for attention,” Mangan said. “Single parent, four kids, food stamps, my mother working long hours, not being able to have what other kids had; two parents, new shoes, new clothes.”

He credits many people with helping him get to where he is but it started with Coach Ralph Steele, who was a founder of the Golden Knights youth football program.

Steele, who passed away earlier this year, came across Mangan hanging out on the street after midnight one night in 1997 and told him he needed to play sports and convinced him to come out for the Golden Knights.

“Sports has helped me understand the growth mindset, the developmental mindset,” Manghan said.

Mangan’s mother moved the family to Newark but he continued to play for the Golden Knights.

His grandmother was another big influence, warning him that if he didn’t find a place in a good system, he would end up in another kind of system like the justice system.

“My grandmother assisted a lot,” Mangan said. “She was the therapist of the family. She told me that if you don’t know how to function in society, society will find a function for you.”

He ended up at Newark West Side High School, where he met Fernard Williams, a retired police detective who had become principal of the school.

“He created opportunities for students,” Mangan said. “He wasn’t afraid to have a conversation with kids. It was the first opportunity I had to see a male educator investing in children.”

Mangan’s behavior began improving and he continued playing football.

“I was afraid to go to jail, to prison, to not be able to do the things I wanted to do. He reminded us how choices have outcomes; challenging choices lead to challenging outcomes.”

Mangan graduated from West Side and went to college, eventually graduating from Kean University with a degree in history. While in college, he had a son.

“That’s when I knew I wanted to be different,” Mangan said. “I wanted to be in my son’s life, every day.”

He was going into his senior year at the time but he needed a job so he went back to West Side and spoke to Williams, who gave him a letter of recommendation and sent him to the Newark Board of Education office. He became a substitute teacher working at Malcolm X Shabazz High School in Newark. He worked during the day and took classes at night.

Because he was still young, just 21 at the time, he was able to develop a good rapport with the students, he said.

“At the time, Shabazz was off the chain,” Mangan said. “I utilized my reputation from childhood as a conversation starter, being known for hanging out in the streets, playing sports. And being a young father. I let them know I wanted to be the person I wished I’d had.”

The principal saw him interacting with kids and noticed they were showing up for his class – he was on a long term substitute assignment at the time. He was asked if he wanted to help coach football.

“It was my first time coaching and it was amazing,” Mangan said.

He was hired full time and was made the in-school suspension teacher, taking on the kids who had been suspended from regular classes. He had that job for four years – all the while coaching football.

He eventually became head coach at Barringer High School where he also served as school operations assistant.

“I just wanted to be in the schools to coach and be around the kids. I did not consider myself an expert on academic instruction.”

He did, however, develop an understanding of leadership within the academic environment.

“That’s where I was able to grow and understand leadership. The principal would have leadership team meetings and each department would give a presentation so that everyone would get a look at overall operations,” Mangan said. “Coming into this role, I understand why that is so important.”

That experience moved him to get a master of education in educational leadership from Grand Canyon College. He earned that degree in 2022.

While he was earning that degree, he took a job at Greater Oaks Legacy Charter School in Newark and returned to the classroom to teach.

He continued coaching, moving on to Kean University, which is where he was when the pandemic hit. Kean’s football season was moved to the spring so he had some free time in the fall and started helping out at Irvington High School, which was, and is, coached by a fellow Golden Knight alumni, Ashley “Smoke” Pierre.

Mangan was eventually hired as offensive coordinator and the team had their best season in program history.

“We won the first state championship in the history of the school,” Mangan said, adding he doesn’t see any difficulties with being the school’s principal and an assistant coach.

His son is an Irvington High School senior, who plays linebacker on the team.

Mangan said he particularly enjoys practicing repetitive skills with the kids but also scouting opponents on film.

“You get to see how things come together and ask ‘how can we have similar success?’” he said.

Mangan plans to use what he has learned along the way in his new position. He has specific goals and an overall plan for the future.

The overall plan is having a space that students want to be a part of and feel appreciative coming to. Specific goals include increasing the honors cohort, increasing the number of students taking advanced placement courses and englaring the JROTC program.

“We want to create a safe, culturally rich learning environment, which brings pride. We want to do all this with our core values; respect; integrity; self control and excellence. These four core values will be part of every conversation we have here.”

The plan is to create opportunities for students.

“Relationships create pathways, opportunities,” Mangan said. “That’s the secret sauce. We want to create relationships with all the stakeholders; students, parents, staff and the community. Everybody who has an investment here.”

  Irvington, Irvington Board of Education