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Lacey leaving North in good shape Mail Tribune / Bob Pennell North Medford High School Principal Don Lacey will leave the school�s pillared walkways behind when he retires in June after 30 years in education to pursue a second career. Principal will retire in June, ending decade at the school By Vicki Guarino From SAT scores to those boys on the corner smoking cigarettes when they should be in school. From picking a new English teacher to sitting front and center at the choir concert. And don�t forget the busted toilet, the pothole in the driveway and playground equipment for the teen parent program. Good or bad, if it happens at North Medford High School, it happens to Principal Don Lacey. For the past 10 years, Lacey has been responsible for the community of 1,900-plus teenagers, 120 staff members, acres of grounds, and countless community expectations for what teenagers and their high school ought to be. Principal�s job is hardest to fill Finding a new leader for the county�s largest high school won�t be easy, says the Medford administrator in charge of the hunt. Medford schools Superintendent Steve Wisely says reports across the country conclude a high school principal is the most difficult position to fill in public education. The difficulty in hiring reflects the difficulty of the job, Wisely says. From the football team that lost the game, to a disgruntled custodial staff, to an upset parent, to the kid who just won�t go to class, it�s all part of the job description. "You name it," Wisely says. "You have everybody pulling you in a million directions." So the ads for North Medford High School Principal Don Lacey�s replacement next year are going out now. The district is posting the job on the Internet and in journals from coast to coast. Meanwhile, Wisely is planning to meet with North staff to compile a list of attributes they believe are needed for a high school principal to be successful. A team of top district administrators � excluding Lacey � expect to conduct interviews in early March, and make a decision before Lacey leaves in June. Neatly turning his job description into a question, Lacey says, "Ultimately, if things are not going well, who do they want to talk to?" At the moment, however, all�s well at North. And that�s just the way Lacey wants the school to be as he passes the job on to a successor. Lacey will retire at the end of the school year. After 30 years in education by the end of June, Lacey will qualify for retirement. And at age 52, he feels young enough to pursue a new career. With his wife, Judy, and two business partners, Lacey will become an innkeeper in Jacksonville, and he�ll expand his role in Memories Antiques, the shop he and Judy own in downtown Medford. "My career all of my life has been education," he says. "I now have the opportunity to do other things." So far, most of Lacey�s career has been at North. Twenty-seven years ago, he joined the faculty, teaching business and coordinating vocational and work-experience programs. He also coached track. He moved on to be assistant principal and five years later took on leadership of the school. The climb up the career rungs was largely unintentional, Lacey recalls. Opportunities simply presented themselves. "I�ve always enjoyed what I was doing, and I spent a number of years in each area," he says. "When the opportunity came up, I thought, �Yeah, I could do this.� " Lacey set out wanting to be an educator in a high school, so he could re-create for other teenagers the best experiences of his own youth. Lacey happens to love high school. "The high school and my teachers were my family," he remembers. "They were the people who cared most for me.�� In school, Lacey discovered his talents in athletics, music and student government. "It was just a great place to be.�� From the success, the fun and the friendships of school, Lacey says, he learned how to make, pursue and achieve his goals. He realized that what he wanted most was to make that very thing happen for other teenagers. "We draw from our best experiences," he says. "I want to make sure high school kids have great experiences. "School has to be a place where kids want to be every day, learning." To reach nearly 2,000 students every day requires the kind of variety Lacey says is a hallmark of North: advanced placement classes, college credits, teen parent programs, volleyball, night school, art competition. "High school has to be a place where students can feel welcome and wanted and where they can have success," he says. How principals see their job What does it mean to be a high school principal, considered one of the toughest jobs in education? Here are some thoughts from a few of the experts: Crater High School Principal Karyn Lynch: "My main job is to be an instructional leader, and that doesn�t just mean academics. I want students to do well in math and science, of course. But it can also mean character building, behavior, ways we want kids to act. I want them to be good citizens. "And my job is to work with the community to showcase our students and get the word of their accomplishments out." Eagle Point High School Principal Mari Brabbin: "I really do have a mission statement. I sat down and wrote one out: �With charactered principles as my guide, my mission is to challenge the purpose, flame the passion and sustain the hope within those I lead and serve as principal and lifelong learner.� "I have it on my desk. I look at it a lot. To sustain the passion and the hope, especially for my staff, is so important. I ask my staff, �How can I help you keep that passion for teaching alive?� "I see myself as a resource for all learning matters in this community � the students, my staff, parents and everyone else in our community." South Medford High School Principal Cynda Rickert: "What I love about the job is the kids. When some of the frustrations of being a principal bring me down, the politics, or whatever it is, I go out in the hallway and talk to the kids. It�s wonderful to have their perspective, and it helps me get my perspective. They are my resource." 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