Beenblossom transfers to high school principal

WASHINGTON — The Washington school board approved Teresa Beenblossom as the new high school principal in a special meeting Monday morning, transferring her from the same position at Lincoln Elementary.

Superintendent Willie Stone said Beenblossom’s “work ethic, ability to work with students and ability to continue to push change based on data,” made her stand out.

Beenblossom said she looked forward to the change of pace.

“I feel like Lincoln is in a really good place with our system work,” she said. “I was ready for a new challenge, and so when the high school position became open … I realized that this was another step in growing myself professionally.”

Beenblossom said she was confident her skills would ease the transition, and that the biggest challenge would be acclimating to the new work environment.

“You work with students, you treat everyone with respect, you greet students and staff. Those types of cultural things are ingrained in what I do already,” she said. “Really it’s just the structure that I’m going to have to figure out, that’s going to be my biggest challenge to start with.”

While she’s excited about many aspects of the new position, Beenblossom said she especially looked forward to making new connections in the move from Lincoln’s 66-member staff to Washington’s 81.

“I’m most excited to learn about who the students and the staff are and really get to build new relationships,” she said. “I’m very relational, that’s one of my biggest things, I like to build relationships.”

Beenblossom has family in the district.

One of her children graduated from Washington High School in May, while another will be a sophomore next school year. Still, she said, she isn’t worried about work-life separation, having been principal in buildings where her children were students when she was principal at St. James Elementary School in Washington.

Although she doesn’t have an action plan yet, Beenblossom said the district was conducting a needs assessment Tuesday afternoon, which will influence her plan moving forward.