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New Year, New Principal
Starting Fresh - Newly hired principal Steve Jacoby speaks to a group of students at Spirit Night on August 20 at Harmon Field. Photo by Andrew Ironside.
Student Feature Article: New Year, New Principal
FHS student author Courtney Ulrich is Photo Editor for the FHS Register newspaper.
Officially beginning his position as Fayetteville High School’s sixth principal in the past 20 years, Steve Jacoby, former vice principal of Rogers Heritage High School, was selected from an original group of 11 candidates by the school board.
Married, with three children from his first wife, Jacoby has been in education for 41 years, his first 30 spent in Texas. Jacoby has been a teacher, counselor, assistant principal, head principal, and also spent 11 years working in administration, he said.
“I jokingly tell people that I’m the Brett Favre of education,” Jacoby said. “I don’t know when to stop.”
As Jacoby begins his first year as principal, his primary challenges are dealing with new construction and getting to know faculty, students and the history of FHS.
“You know what needs to be modified and adjusted by learning what programs are in place and evaluating their effectiveness,” Jacoby said. “Before you know where you are going you have got to know where you’ve started.”
Along with challenges, Jacoby also has some goals for his first year, including increasing student achievement and graduation, and lowering the school’s dropout rate.
“I’d like to create a culture of high expectations for student and faculty,” Jacoby said. “When it all comes together, you will see students being motivated to be better tomorrow than they were today.”
AP world history teacher Susie Stewart, who has seen 10 principals during her time at FHS, hopes that Jacoby will soon begin to work towards his objectives.
“In the past, the beginning of the school year has always been about the rules and maintaining what we have to do at FHS,” Stewart said. “In other words, from year to year, I have felt we were simply treading water and not racing towards a goal.”
Some students anticipate that this year will give Jacoby a chance to be more involved than the previous administration and get a stronger hand on discipline.
“I want him to have a better hold on discipline and make the high school a safer place,” junior Deanna Mantooth said. “I also want him to be more visible. I can’t say I saw Mr. Price more than twice my entire sophomore year. I want that to change.”
“I enjoy collaboration between students and faculty,” Jacoby said. “I don’t want to be the star; I just want to be part of a great team.”