Wenatchee High School’s new principal visited the school yesterday to meet with staff and students, and get more comfortable with the school.

Charles Francis Adams High School Principal (Clarkston) Eric Anderson was confirmed for the principal position  by the Wenatchee School board on Tuesday, April 28, to replace Bob Celebrezze, who will be leaving WHS at the end of this school year. Anderson had held the principal position at Clarkston for four years.

“I was at Clarkston for four years, and it has 750 students and has been a great experience for me, but I like looking for other challenges in life as well, and Wenatchee is a large school and a larger district. Great reputation, great history here. Everything I have heard has been extremely positive,” Anderson said.

WHS has a population of 2,089 students as of this year, in stark contrast to Clarkston’s student population of 750 students, but Anderson sees the statistic as individual kids instead of numbers.

“Kids are kids,” Anderson said, “I’ve had a chance to work at schools with a different variety of sizes and I’ve found that kids are kids. Kids are great wherever you go. Larger numbers doesn’t mean it’s necessarily too different.”

The real trial of moving to a larger school will be coordination with the administration, according to Anderson.
“It will be different here managing the number of resources that I’ll be working with,” Anderson said. “I’ve come from a system where I’ve had fewer assistant principals, fewer teachers, so managing professional development with a larger group will be a little bit new to me, but I think working with great people is fun no matter where you’re at.”

Anderson also stated he would like to develop relationships with the students at WHS, and believes that he will be able to successfully connect with the student body, despite the administrative gap created by the departure of Celebrezze and WHS Assistant Principal Dave Perkins, who is taking over as principal at Sunnyslope Elementary next year.

“I have a pretty good ability to connect with people. I’m pretty easy to talk to, and I develop relationships with people pretty quickly,” Anderson said. “I think that when you’re in [a leadership position], building those relationships and building trust quickly is really important … it’s an essential part to what I do.”

During his visit to the school, Anderson stopped by various departments throughout the day to learn more about the classes, staff and programs offered at WHS in order to become more familiar with the school to ease the transition process.

“Today was a great day. I got a chance to meet with a large number of staff and shake hands with lots of students in the lunchroom and be as social as I possibly could in terms of getting to know folks as quickly as possible,” Anderson said. “It’s important for me to learn as much as I can about where we are at right now. Over the next six months, I’m going to be learning as much as I can.”

Anderson will begin his contract with the district on July 1.