Hartley Takes Helm as CNE High School Principal
By Dick Maloney
New Clermont Northeastern High School Principal Shane Hartley compares leading a school to being the captain of a ship.
“If you want to make a change, if you want to make an impact at a big school, it's like turning a cruise ship around. It takes a lot of time to coordinate with all the different people who are involved. There are more steps to go through,” he said.
Hartley, 45, has had that experience in districts large and small – as principal at Finneytown High School; assistant principal, associate principal and principal at Deer Park High School, and curriculum director in the Forest Hills Local School District. He officially takes over at Clermont Northeastern Aug. 1, with a mission not of turning around a ship, but staying on course with the district’s successes. He looks forward to returning to a smaller setting where he can have more of a direct impact.
“It's a smaller group and you get to learn each other's strengths and skills a lot quicker. You get to build some of that camaraderie and that teamwork that fellowship a little bit quicker. And I think you get to know the kids and the staff quicker and more in depth,” Hartley said. “It's quality as opposed to quantity.”
That process has begun. Hartley has talked with Superintendent Tim Sies about the priorities of the district, as well as Assistant Principal Brad Pierce, outgoing Principal Robert Walker and new Athletic Director Andrew Marlatt. He set up office hours to meet with teachers about the strengths of the school, where they want to keep improving and what a new principal should know.
Those strengths include the district’s much praised and award-winning PBIS (Positive Behavioral Interventions and Support) model and the closeness of the staff.
“(I was) just talking to a teacher who was relatively new, and she said, ‘As a new teacher, I always felt like people were here for me anytime I had a question. They were there to help me out.’ I talked to other teachers who said sometimes when people are going through some rough times or whatever the case may be, there's a way of this teaching staff of coming together and working together,” Hartley said.
Preparing student for their post-high school life is another emphasis. The district refers to it as “CNE” – College, Next Step or Enlistment,” meaning the goal is for all students should
have a definite plan, be it continuing their education, starting a career or enlisting in the military. Hartley wants to work with the teachers to review available data and make sure all students are on track to graduate.
He acknowledges the uncertainty created by turnover on the front office – Hartley is the high school’s third principal in three years. “Change is a little bit of a guessing game. So I think that's going to be a challenge for us,” Hartley said, citing discipline as an example. “What needs to be handled by a teacher? What needs to be handled by administration? You know, what are the other expectations around lesson planning?”
Parents have their own expectations, and Hartley has plans to build those relationships. He hoped to spend time at the Clermont County Fair, about three miles from the high school campus, taking photos and tagging them on social media as a way to introduce himself. Expect to see him at athletic events – he is a former high school athlete and head football coach at Finneytown, and college athlete at Centre College, and also coached at Madeira schools.
“A lot of the benefits of this small-town community is people are reaching out as well. So it's been kind of nice,” he said. One day in early July, as he stood outside the front door of the high school, a coach recognized him and said, ‘Oh, you’re the new principal.’ “I said yeah, and a girl walks by and she said, ‘Hi, you're going get to know me.’”
Hartley sees Clermont Northeastern as a district where he can thrive.
“If I'm able to work with our teachers, and work with our community, and have great things going, I don't necessarily need my name out there,” he said. “If our kids are succeeding, if our extracurriculars are succeeding, and if I'm able to work with all those people and continue to grow things, I wouldn't want to go anywhere. This is the kind of place that I'd want to be.”