Rachel Flanders, an alumni of the school, will start as the new Harmon campus principal next school year.

After former principal Joy Cartmill resigned earlier this semester, the school posted the job opening on March 28, then began the interview process to look for a new principal. 

“Typically, districts post jobs for 10 days minimum, I think that’s the law,” Harmon assistant principal Toby Bauter said. “Of course there are a lot of ambitious growing leaders out there that want a principal position, so they had a bunch of people apply and then they spent two weeks going through resumes and doing interviews and then the committee made a decision.”

Flanders is one of the current assistant principals at Hebron High School. She has been working in education for 18 years, teaching from elementary to high school levels. Flanders has worked as a teacher, liaison and assistant principal at various schools in her career.

“High school is where my heart is at and now I’ve been at high school for eight years,” Flanders said. “My favorite job was working alongside Student Council and the junior class to plan activities like homecoming and prom. It was so nice to have big social events again.”

Flanders has already started attending meetings for her new role as principal. She plans to visit the campus a few times before the end of this school year. Flanders met a few other Harmon administrators and students at the board meeting on Monday, May 2, where it was announced she would fill the role as principal. She met next year’s Harmon Student Council president Luca Bella Fancis and vice president Gissel Valdez.

“I would advise Mrs. Flanders to have patience with us,” Valdez said. “This year we ran into some problems, we just hope we have her support. Anything that involves money, the principal needs to sign.”

During the interview process, the district asked retired middle school principal David Tickner to serve as the interim principal of the school.

“I would want nothing more than to have students remember me as true champion for their success,” Flanders said.  “Yes I might have been tough on them, but in the end they can see that I cheered them on every step of the way. I want students to feel confident that they had my full support and ultimately came through high school to be the best version of themselves.”