Who is the high school’s new principal, and is Meet the Cards canceled? Did our school actually receive a huge grant to establish a media and journalism class?
If you didn’t know, Clinton High School has a brand-new principal. Taaadaaaa!!! Now you know, you’re welcome! A few days ago, I met with her to help some of you all out, put a name to a face, so she isn’t just a figure but now a person you know better!
To start with our interview piece with her, i though id run through some fast facts!
- Principal Lewis has seven kids between her and her husband, all ranging from 5th grade to freshman in college! She said her biggest personal goal in life is to maintain a good work-to-life balance as she can, not only as a principal but also as a mom. She said it is going to take lots of planning and intentionality, but she is working on that because she truly and wholeheartedly wants to do well in both!
- She started her career out as a flight attendant, and during she got to travel and see so many things. She said starting in that career gave her the time and the opportunity to decide if she really did want to pursue education, and she’s glad she didn’t just jump into it and gave herself time to see that’s what she did want to do.
- Mrs. Lewis is from a smaller farming town in Colorado, so she loves the size of our school; she said she loves that it feels nice and familiar.
Now, career-wise, she’s worked in education all the way from Pre-K to 12th grade, most recently working in an admin position; she says working in really all of the areas gives her the “ really unique opportunity to decide exactly where I want to be”. She says she’s a lifetime learner, and that there’s never a point in someone’s life that you know everything you could know, so just, professionally, her biggest goal is just to keep learning and growing, which she’s very excited to do here.
I also asked her about her recent move. She said being from Colorado and moving state to state was definitely a huge change recently in her life. That right now one of her personal goals is just to get to know people. She said she loves where she’s coming from but that she also loves it here, and that while it’s been quite the transition, it’s been a great one. She said she loves the faculty and said that I really mentioned that. That the dynamic we had here made it so nice to come in. She said no one has been difficult to work with at all, and she couldn’t have asked for a better group.
Now, with all that said, Mrs. Lewis and our school have had to make some very difficult decisions already this year, whether you agree with them or not. And there is one you have probably heard about. This fall, CHS will not be having a Meet the Cards.
Meet the Cards is something unlike anything else. For those of you not aware, each kid from every team that season stands in a line and gets introduced. Everyone shows up, the mommas are screamin’, and all the students are done up, envisioning how they should wave when named off. For years and years, Clinton has done Meet the Cards, once in the fall, winter, and spring. This year, however, we are not. Now, according to Principal Lewis, this is not a permanent decision; it is just something being looked at to see what is working and what’s not, so that way we can utilize our time and resources well. The school wants to see what is working in the community. To do this effectively, they’ve decided to make a Fall Sports Promo Video. After the video is released and the public can see it, they will approach the next athletic season the same way or differently, depending on how the community responds.
So then who is doing the video, you may ask? None other than our good ole Mr. Jimmy Barnes and his CSPN entourage!!! Now, to explain, CSPN is actually a new development in our school, which was actually inspired by us, KDKD!! Barnes said that after seeing what KDKD could do in our community, he was inspired and brainstormed with the AD and counselors about how they could have students do it for the school and community, to give them the stepping stones if that was something that interested them. Now, thankfully, CHS was very excited about the idea too! When asked about it, Barnes said, “The district graciously found the funds to help jumpstart this class. We were hoping for just a little help, but they came through in a big way that will contribute heavily to the success of the class.” With the gracious funds, they were even able to buy two video cameras, two regular cameras, two Mac Studios, two media digital displays, and so many other pieces that it took to have a well-run class. With these new resources, our high schoolers are very, very excited and plan to even start figuring out how to start broadcasting a video each week going further into the year! While still in development, because this is such a new thing, you can already see how excited everyone is about it, and as a Media outlet ourselves, we’re very excited to watch the next generation in our community have such a hunger for media and journalism!
