APs are always busy. Busy with paperwork, helping teachers and students that they’re in charge of, going to meetings, and staying in control of different situations ranging from fixing misunderstandings with students to corralling wild animals on campus.
Mr. Lawrence Chavez is the new AP in charge of students with the last names starting with an I –O. Before he became an administrator, he was a Special Education teacher at Ed White Middle School, where he decided to become an administrator, went through administrator training, and became an AP in 2008 at Eisenhower Middle School.
“This is my first year ever at a high school,” Mr. Chavez said. “All of my educational career has been at the middle school level.”
Being at a middle school for nine years was what Mr. Chavez was used to, but when they told him that he was going to be an AP for high school, Mr. Chavez knew he had to start preparing.
“[I] started planning, and asking myself what’s it going to be like,” Mr. Chavez said. “How many teachers will there be? What will the kids be like? Because my experience had always been at the middle school level, so how are the kids at the high school level? The campus, how big is the campus? All of the sports, what are those going to be like? So a lot of what this was going to be like when I got to this level.”
However, planning was just the beginning of things because transitioning from middle school to high school is significant step itself.
“The main difference is, of course, the kids are bigger they are also more mature, not to say that middle schools are immature because they’re not, but with the high school kids you can have a more rational conversation with the high school kids,” Mr. Chavez said. “Also, there are more kids, Eisenhower had about, 1,100 and here I believe we have about 2,400 so it is a little over double, than we had in middle school, also there are many more activities, sports, for example, there’s soccer, wrestling, and baseball.”
While there are differences between high school and middle school, it’s also what makes it interesting.
“My favorite part is being out there with the kids seeing them at lunch, in the hallways, and that there’s always something to do, and it’s always different,” Mr. Chavez said, “There’s just so many different things that make up the duties of being assistant principal.”
Being an AP requires a lot of attention and hard work, especially when your goal is to create relationships with the staff, and the students, but Mr. Chavez seems to have an idea on how to handle such a hefty task.
“My plan, for now, is just to get to learn the campus as much as I can,” Mr. Chavez said. “I really want to get to know the kids, and have them get to know me, I want them to feel comfortable and come to me for whatever reason. Also to get to know our teachers, to see what I can do to support them, to know their names, and what their needs are, and how can I support them.”
