With a swarm of more than 250 eighth graders about to attend Albert Lea High School, new jobs, roles and positions have popped up to make the transition as smooth as possible for everyone involved. Marcia Langseth, previously the principal of Southwest Middle
School, has fully taken on this
challenge by becoming an administrator within the high school.
“It’s good for the kids to see a familiar face,” Langseth said. “Hopefully they [the eighth graders] will be more willing to get help.”
The job of a dean includes helping with attendance and discipline. However, Langseth has also been working with fellow assistant principal John Double to map out the high school classes so all grades, eighth to twelfth, will have adequate space and classes. Langseth has also worked with assistant principal Johanna Thomas to help with eighth-grade registration, orientation and school tours.
Langseth appears to enjoy her transition into the high school as she remembers many faces from her days at Southwest Middle School.
“We never get to see them [the students] mature in the middle school,” Langseth said. “Now they’re much more serious with their academics.
It’s important the incoming eighth graders learn to
swim through the seas of students in the hallways, without the fear of sinking. The inevitable truth is the new student body is going to have to earn some type of respect from its elder peers before the older students will be throwing out life preservers. With the help of Langseth and others, hopefully these new students will at least be prepared with their own set of arm floats.
As for next year, little seems to be known about where some jobs stand. With the excruciating planning and preparing, the ALHS staff certainly hopes everything goes smoothly.
“We want to do it well the first time,” Langseth said.
However, some can’t help but wonder who will still be around if things go too smoothly and don’t need any major improvements, or if things become an utter mess that some believe the high school shouldn’t have been involved with in the first place.
“The [school] board assignments will be decided in April,” said ALHS principal, Al Root.
Many people are working hard to usher the new eighth graders into whatever space is available at ALHS. Langseth has worked with the High School Administrative Team to accomplish all they can in making the transition go as smoothly as possible from a traditional high school to an 8-12 building.
“I’d like to be here still next year,” Langseth said.