In a highschool, an assistant principal is more than just an authority figure. They are someone trustworthy, someone who students can talk to, an adult who is there to help students when they’re struggling. As far as those qualifications go, Assistant Principal Scott Purdy fits the description perfectly. While he is usually the athletic director and part-time teacher at West Middle school, Purdy was brought up to the position at West when Kali Myers went on maternity leave
“This job was posted for internal applicants only, you had to be already in TCAPS at a school. I interviewed here at West Senior High with about seven or eight different people. There was one interview they gave us the questions ahead of time, and it was pretty quick,” Purdy said.
A key component of being a principal is having the skills to communicate with not only the students, but also other staff and community members. Although not a high school teacher, Purdy’s time at the middle school has helped him prepare for his new role at West.
“I would say those hard conversations you have to have with your stakeholders has prepared me to transition to this role and continue that work. That is the hardest thing about being a leader: having those difficult conversations and making those tough phone calls. It never gets easier, you just have to do it more often,” Purdy said.
Although Purdy typically works full time at the middle school, time at West has begun to influence his wants for a principal position. Purdy attended the University of Ohio, and graduated with a masters in athletic administration in hopes of being a high school athletic director. However, with new insite, his goals may be changing.
“My goal has always been to be a high school athletic director. It’s a lot of late nights and I have young children- ages 4, 8, and 10- so late nights are not really the best for my family. I’ve kind of thought about pursuing an assistant principal position,” Purdy said.
Despite Purdy adjusting well, one key difference between Purdy’s jobs has been the student interaction. Going from high energy middle schoolers to calmer young adult high school students is a bigger gap then some may think.
“[With] highschool kids you can have a better conversation with them about life. With middle school kids it’s a lot of whack-a-mole, a lot of immature behavior that we would see in the freshman here. The maturity level is just higher, less low level behaviors,” Purdy said.
