Local Assistant Principal Receives Award

logo-w-sunburstKayla Desroches/KMXT

A local assistant principal received an award just as he transitioned to a new position within the school district.

Kodiak Middle School Assistant Principal Damon Hargraves got a Principal of the Year award last month at the 50th Annual Alaska Principals’ Conference. The event is sponsored by the Alaska Association of Secondary School Principals and the Alaska Association of Elementary School Principals.

Hargarves says he was notified about the award a couple of months ago, but missed his part in the awards ceremony.

“I didn’t know that it was going to be that big a deal. During that part of our meetings, I was out talking with one of our counselors who was having an emergency, so I missed receiving my award publicly, but that was okay. And the very same day I received the award, I was introduced to the school board as the tech director. So I got that recognition and then moved onto the next thing.”

He explains his new position as the borough school district tech director means he’s in charge of distance learning in the island communities.

He says he has a background in education technology and he received his award in part because of his involvement implementing the tutorial system, which allows students to customize parts of their schedules to integrate special classes and individual needs.

Hargraves helped develop software called Pickr for the program.

“It allows students to pick their class. It’s a really, really simple tool, but it streamlines our work flow. So, it’s designed for our very, very specific use case and for a school, so a school can set up these tutorial times and then students can pick them as well as teachers assign them and schedules be printed and all of that.”

The next middle school assistant principal, Melissa Haffeman, has already been hired.

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