By Simone Midgett, Editor-in-Chief
Chuck Lansing lasted just one year as First Flight High School’s assistant principal. He’s looking forward to keeping his new job — principal — quite a bit longer.
“I knew the week I moved here last year that this is where I wanted to be for a really long time, so to have the opportunity to be the principal means a lot of people in leadership positions in the district trust me and a lot of people in the community are also behind it, which makes me really proud to be a part of,” Lansing said.
During the lengthy process of finding a new principal, it was evident that Lansing met all of the requirements from parents, students and teachers who provided input on the search to replace Tim Albert, who retired in April. Caroline Pearce served as the interim principal and led FFHS’ commencement exercises on June 14, just two days after Lansing’s promotion was announced.
“They wanted someone who was innovative and a great communicator, someone who is flexible and a leader who will listen,” Superintendent John Farrelly said. “Lansing has a good skill set and he is an outstanding leader. He demonstrates all of the qualities that we value in leadership and he is an outstanding educator.”
Lansing plans to continue to push the students of First Flight to strive for greatness in the same way he did last year.
“I would like to see us continue with the progress we made this spring towards being a very inclusive environment where everyone feels accepted and loved and has the same opportunity to enjoy high school that everybody else does,” Lansing said.
Lansing is already planning on implementing new ways to help First Flight grow and acknowledges there are things that need to be worked on.
“I think I have to learn a lot more about our staff — what everyone wants to teach and can teach, and what will benefit the students the most,” Lansing said.
After officially starting his new job July 1, Lansing and the rest of the staff are already planning for Aug. 26.
“I want everyone back because having the kids in school is definitely the most fun part of the year,” Lansing said. “I am looking forward to everyone coming back and getting started and getting back on track with where we were a few years ago and being a high performing school.”
Senior Simone Midgett can be reached at midgettSa0827@daretolearn.org.
