Danville High School has new assistant principal, School now has two assistant principals
Published 6:30 pm Tuesday, July 23, 2024
Shelby Cameron, who is starting her 10th year working in the Danville Independent School District, is Danville High School’s new assistant principal, alongside Assistant Principal Tomma Huguely. She stepped into the role on July 1.
Her prior role was secondary instructional specialist at DHS. That role has been dissolved and replaced with the additional assistant principal position.
Though the DHS administration will operate as one team, Cameron will primarily be over academics and curriculum, and Huguely will primarily be over building and student life (behavior).
Cameron is excited to continue the progress being made at DHS.
“We’ve done a lot of work to create opportunities to create college and career readiness for our students, opportunities to explore different careers, opportunities to demonstrate college and career readiness through different AP (Advanced Placement) and dual credit courses — things along those lines,” Cameron said. “And we have a lot of career pathways that are really successful and continue to grow, so I’d like to see us continue on that momentum of having more students leaving our doors fully ready for their next steps.”
Cameron is also excited about working with the new DHS principal, Danny Goodwin.
“It’s an exciting time for a new start and to see some of the really wonderful things that we have at Danville High School get to flourish,” she said. “I think Danny has a lot of knowledge about the things that make us spectacular, and I’m excited to aid in that leadership.”
Cameron’s first job as an educator in the district was as a math teacher at John W. Bate Middle School in 2015. She taught there for five years before she moved to DHS to teach math and later became the secondary instructional specialist. She shared something she is proudest of from her time in the role.
“The transition to standards-based was a huge undertaking, and we’re already seeing some of the benefits internally and with some of our students in the way we do intervention,” she said. “So I’m excited to see that continue to grow and make a bigger impact on our curriculum and our teaching as a whole.”
For example, intervention now is much more strategic in the way DHS supports students based on specific skill needs, and there is better clarity for students as far as what they need to learn, she said.
Her two favorite things that DHS does are senior capstone projects and Intersession, which is a multi-day program that allows students to experience unique learning opportunities, some of which they might not experience in a traditional classroom setting.
An addition to DHS with the coming school year is the new teaching pathway, she said. She added that the school has a lot of students excited about learning what it means to be a good teacher.
“We’d love nothing more than to continue to grow those here and then have them come back and have an impact on the community they grew up in,” she said. “So I think it really gives us a good opportunity to develop and expand our school.”
“I love Danville,” she said about taking on the new role. “This is my 10th year in the district, and it feels like just a natural fit. It feels like the right next step.”