Andrew Stephens welcomes back staff and students as his second year as Principal and Superintendent of LS kicks off. One of the main goals for this school year, Stephens states, is to establish “more consistent and recognizable level names for courses.” Stephens and the LS staff are tasked with being able to balance the benefits of one core aspect of LS culture that celebrates trust and teacher and student independence, with the need for consistency and structured support to best serve their needs. Moving forward, a larger set of questions needs to be addressed within departments in order to identify how to retain teacher independence while also meeting expectations of consistency in order to ease student, and possibly college administrator, confusion. Stephens’ hope is that, “by the end of this year, we will be in a place where [more consistent level names] have been cemented on the transcript.”

Another focus that Stephens and the rest of the LS staff have for the 2024-2025 school year is respecting human differences. Stephens states that “it is important that we approach others with wonder as opposed to judgment.” He reminds us to be up-standers and learn ways to approach a situation where this core value is being violated. Stephens leaves us with a message: “Don’t ever lose sight of the power you have, individually, on a day to day basis to make a difference in somebody else’s life.”