Next year North Platte High School will have all new administration, from principals to superintendents. Former NPHS English teacher Jami Allen will be one of the new associate principals, which will be her first administration job.

Allen, currently an instructional facilitator for the district, has worked for NPPSD for ten years, teaching senior English for eight years with seven of those years being dual-credit classes. She got her teaching license from the University of Nebraska at Kearney then got her Master’s degree from Fort Hays State University, collecting credits for an administrative certification. “I’m just really excited to kind of see what it’s like on the administrative side versus the teacher side,” Allen said.

With her current certification, Allen can be a principal from preschool through high school. Next year will be her first experience being an administrator, but working as an instructional facilitator has helped her with understanding what goes on in the office and how to look at data, among other things. 

She will be one of the newest members, having no experience but working from a teacher’s desk rather than the front office. “Everybody else has (administration) experience,” Allen says. “But I’m excited to learn from them, too.”

Female principals and associate principals aren’t a common thing.The high school hasn’t had a female administrator for roughly ten years, so many people are excited to finally have one. “That makes me a little bit nervous but I think it’ll be good,” Allen said.

Allen feels confident with her knowledge about the school from being a teacher, but she is still looking forward to learning more about how things are run in the office aspect. 

“One thing that’s a really good thing for leaders to remember is that you want to go in and listen to what people have to say, see how things are going and learn what the people are interested in changing and what’s working well,” Allen said.

Looking for new teachers  is a main problem for the school, due to many teachers leaving and the national substitute shortage. With many teachers retiring this year, the school has to find replacements.They have found one for all except two spots, which will hopefully be taken care of over the summer. 

Recruiting a more diverse community in the high school, not only for students but teachers too, is a goal for changing the face of North Platte. 

Finding good substitutes is difficult and the school doesn’t necessarily have a plan but are looking for different things to get more teachers to come. “Something we can do as the incoming administration is just continue to build the relationships with our substitute teachers,” Allen said, “so that they know what to do and they feel comfortable coming into the school, making sure that they know it’s a safe space and our students are going to be awesome for them.”