The staff in charge of a school, primarily the principals, have a crucial role in the school and are responsible for the regulation of school rules, maintaining a good reputation, and overall spreading school spirit and positive attitudes as they set their students up in the strides towards their future.

This year, GlenOak High School has hired two new assistant principals. Assistant Principal Cherie Phillips, and previous Oakwood Middle School teacher Lewis Akins accepted the role and responsibility of becoming new leaders of the school.

Assistant Principal Lewis Adkins

Adkins, being a former English teacher at the middle school, finds that he can implement the experiences that he learned from being a teacher into his new job at GlenOak as a principal.

“I learned how to be super organized as a teacher and as a principal. One thing I’m learning is that no day is the same. You never know what’s going to happen in a school day. You know, you’re walking into the building every day, wondering what you’re going to have to deal with. I feel like being a teacher helped me be organized so I can keep my thoughts in order and be able to work through those things,” Adkins said.

Despite his ability to have an orderly thought process compatible with success in an educational career, Adkins has tested out many different career opportunities to find out what feels just right for him. While earning his degree, he coached football at Oakwood to begin his involvement in the district and was hired by Plain Local. Adkins didn’t find an immediate kinship with the job.

“Many people’s first year of teaching is difficult because it’s a job where it’s very hard to train someone for because you have to actually live it,” Adkins said. “My first year teaching, I thought there was no way I could do it. I felt like I was drowning every day. I felt like I never knew what I was doing.

During this time, Adkins thought about becoming a firefighter and attended fire school and training to become a firefighter, which he enjoyed. Though he ended up being a teacher due to some advice he got from another teacher.

“I had a teacher I got really close with, and he said , ‘Just give it three years. Give it three years, and then make that decision.’ And so, I gave it three years and I don’t have any regrets. I’m super happy I had that advice,” Adkins said.

Despite his early struggles, he feels that his choice to persevere through the rough beginning patches of his career led the way to his decision to become a principal, wanting to be the person who can offer the same support to people when they feel as though they are unable to persevere. He feels that his responsibility is to be able to lift other teachers up and use his experiences to offer support, as well as empowering and motivating students and leading them to a path of success. These important attributes make him a key figure in the image of GlenOak High School.

Lewis Adkins is also related to assistant principal Tyler Adkins. They are brothers.

Assistant Principal Cherie Phillips

While this is her first career relative to the Plain Local District, Cherie Phillips has a fair share of experience in working in education, which is evident through her strong work ethic, professionalism and dedication to helping students grow.

“I have always enjoyed student growth, even as a teacher. Before becoming a principal, I was actually a special education teacher, so in that role, I was always looking at ways for students to grow and develop in academics or behaviors or social skills. My favorite part of my job is watching child development, so coming into a principal role, I get to continue to do that in a different capacity when it comes to behaviors and things like mental health. So just being able to help support growth of teens is a big passion of mine,” Phillips said.

Phillips herself is a prime example of hard work, putting years of education and learning into becoming credentialed for her role. After her high school graduation, she earned three degrees. At the University of Akron, she earned her bachelor’s degree in child and family development, but in order to start working in education, she needed a license.

Because of this, she attended the University of Dayton, which got her 30 graduate credits and a license to be an intervention specialist, also earning a masters degree in special education there. Finally, she enrolled into a program at Western Governors University and earned an educational leadership masters degree there, giving her the credentials to become a principal.

“I think that shows my interest in educating myself and learning and growing and developing myself. I think that’s a strength of mine in this role because if I mess up, I can learn and grow from that. I think that’s a strength in any job that you can have — to be able to say ‘Man, how could I do that differently and have a better outcome,’” Phillips said.

Phillips was an assistant principal for one year at Waterloo School District before taking the job at GlenOak in May.