The new Hawthorne High School principal, Daniel LaGrone, is a Hawthorne Bear to the core. A 1992 alum of this high school, La Grone was a Lincoln Middle School history teacher from September 2001 to December 2009, and then again from September 2010 to August 2012. He also served as interim vice principal at HHS from January 2010 to May 2010. And then was the LMS vice principal from September 2012 to June 2014. Now, he’s here at Hawthorne High School and we are all wondering what he has in store for us this upcoming year. To get questions answered, I went directly to Mr. LaGrone. I recently sat down with the new principal and heard from him exactly what his thoughts and plans are for his future, the school’s future, and his own thoughts about being principal.
Clarion Reporter: Is there pressure added knowing you are following a beloved principal like Mr. Cohen?
LaGrone: Oh, of course!
Clarion Reporter: Do you feel a difference, positive or negative, in taking over as principal after being the high school vice-principal in 2010?
LaGrone: Positive. It gives me a good sense of the building, staff, the procedures and seeing how much everything has changed because it has changed quite a bit. It shows the positive performance of this new schedule [the drop schedule] we have. Over all, my experience as VP here gives me a familiarity with the policies and procedures.
Clarion Reporter: Even when you were in the classroom, did you always strive to become an administrator or did you simply act upon the chance when it was presented?
LaGrone: I always strived to be an administrator; however, I love teaching. I went to graduate school for the administrative degree more for the education than the yearning to be an administrator. I just wanted additional education, and once I had the education, I definitely wanted to become an administrator.
Clarion Reporter: How do you feel knowing you begin the year with a problem due to the unfinished gym floor and have to fix a problem you didn’t create?
LaGrone: I don’t want to point with the finger, but I want to point with the thumb back at myself. I have 650-plus students that need a gym floor so whoever can help me get that gym floor fixed as quickly as possible, that’s what I’m going to do.
Clarion Reporter: Are you prepared for your future here, being a new principal with an interim vice principal and an eventual new vice principal as well as a new superintendent?
LaGrone: Yes, I’m excited! Change is always going to be there; change is happening as we speak, and you just have to work with whatever you’re going to work with and move forward as a team.
Clarion Reporter: What plans do you have for your future years here–such as for athletics, electives and testing?
LaGrone: First of all, we are going to take a close at look some of the programs already started. We are also looking deeper into the arts for other electives.
Clarion Reporter: As an administrator are there any negatives to the new PARCC testing?
LaGrone: I don’t think that there are negatives. I think that there will be faster results and faster feedback. The administration of the test will be a challenge for any public school in general from the technology side of it and the scheduling side of it. Our intention is to make sure that the schedules of the students aren’t derailed too much during the testing because it won’t just be one session of testing; it will be a session, then a month and a half later another session. But that’s our main intention to get through this first year with the Partnership for Assessment Readiness for College and Careers, as clean as possible and have our students be as successful as possible.
