West Tisbury school principal Michael Halt will leave the Vineyard at the end of the school year to take a job as a high school principal in California.

Mr. Halt, who has served as principal at the West Tisbury school since 2004, has accepted a job as principal of San Clemente High School in San Clemente, Calif., superintendent of schools James H. Weiss confirmed Thursday.

He said Mr. Halt planned to announce his departure to his staff at the end of the day Thursday.

The classroom is up the open staircase to the right in room 220 at the Edgartown School. Flags of world nations hang from the ceiling. There is a quote on the door that reads, “No significant learning occurs without a significant relationship.” This is the English Language Learning room, although it is not the only place in the school where English language learning takes place.

Two Oak Bluffs students were honored at the state house in Boston as part of a national reading and writing program for young people.

Lily Davey and Bella Chimes, eighth-grade students at the Oak Bluffs School, both submitted work to Letters About Literature, a program that asks young people in grades four through 12 to write to an author (living or dead) about how his or her book has had a profound impact on them. Lily wrote a letter to Tahereh Mafi, the author of Shatter Me, and Bella wrote a letter to Donna Cooner, the author of Skinny.

On his 103rd day on the job, Massachusetts Secretary of Education Matthew H. Malone came to the Vineyard for a full immersion in Island education: he chatted up students and praised the school’s vocational program, made suggestions for school fundraisers and sampled the culinary program’s scalloped potatoes.

Mr. Malone was on the Island Thursday for a look at Vineyard schools and to listen to concerns, he said, as part of a tour of schools across the commonwealth.

On a recent Tuesday morning culinary students at the Martha’s Vineyard High School were preparing lunch for some of the teachers. They baked foccacia bread and made sandwiches with vegetables, whipped ricotta cheese and roast chicken, and Italian sausage and mozzarella cheese.

“The food is extraordinary,” said Cindy West, a Spanish teacher who attended the lunch. But cooking wasn’t the only item on the educational menu

On Monday afternoon, tentative strains of Go Tell Aunt Rhody echo in the foyer of the Chilmark School where beginning and intermediate students perform solo violin recitals. On Tuesday morning, a group of Advanced Orchestra students work to achieve fortissimo at the West Tisbury School. On Wednesday morning, eight intermediate students, ranks depleted due to MCAS testing, fill the band room of the Tisbury School with the coda of their latest piece. One youngster swings his foot in time to the music as he plays.