The Sidney C. Huntington School is getting a new principal starting this year.

Ken Essex will be in the position of principal at the school. Mr. Essex moved from his position as director of residential life at Ptarmigan Hall to providing educational leadership and instruction for staff and students at SHS.

“This is a great opportunity to work with great staff and great students in a great community,” said Mr. Essex. “This is going to be a big challenge for me.”

As the principal at SHS, Mr. Essex will manage standards-based instruction and implement systematic assessment, data acquisition and analysis.

Mr. Essex’s educational career started as an elementary teacher for first through eighth graders in Mountain Village in the years 1995 to 2002.

He then moved to Pilot Station from 2002 to 2005 to be a science, math, and be the lead teacher with junior high and high school students.

Mr. Essex then moved up to an administrative position in a different location, as assistant principal at Hooper Bay School in Hooper Bay. In 2007, Mr. Essex became principal of Hooper Bay School for a year.

He also worked in St. Anthony, Minn., to work under Metro ECSU, as a regional education specialist.

Before arriving at SHS, Mr. Essex worked as director of residential life at Ptarmigan Hall on the GILA campus.

As director of residential life, Mr. Essex provided supervision, staff development and student behavior management for the residence hall, dining hall, admissions department, school and vehicle fleet at a rural boarding school. He also assisted schools and districts with completion and implementation of improvement plans to increase student achievement and directed staff development in the continuous use of best practices.