Many people think that the principals at schools are not all that important. That all they are is just the cherry on top of the ice cream, or that they are just there to keep students in check. But there is so much more that goes on behind the scenes. There is so much more that the principal is responsible for and in charge of.  At Manitou Springs High School, many students only see the principal as a guy who lets them get across the crosswalk behind the school, but he is so much more. It took a lot more for Principal Jesse Hull to make it so students could go back to school this fall.

Students and teachers know that this summer former principal, Mr. Moeder-Chandler, left with quick notice. It stood as a shock to  students and staff.  No one anticipated that happening, and many were confused about how school was going to take place in the current COVID situation. So, in a flash, Mr. Hull took charge and got on top of that. “I jumped right in and was doing the principal’s job without being appointed the principal. There was a ton of work to do, trying to scope and come up with the hybrid model,” Hull said. “Thankfully, we had some teachers and administrators to help come up with the model over the summer. Even though it was challenging, I was still up to the challenge.”

Zachery Brown, an excellent teacher at MSHS agreed that Mr. Hull was up to the challenge.  “I think that given the constraints in the timetable that Mr. Hull had to work with, he came up with probably the best possible solution we could have hope to have going forward into the year,” he said.  “He stepped into the position when there were a lot of things being changed every single week. I think he adapted really well, and he’s been handling the stresses of that responsibility of that pretty good as well.”

Mr. Hull’s plans for the future are still to work on academic growth. He believes that it’s important for the teachers to try and help kids grow and prepare themselves for the future. He wants to help grant kids different graduation pathways for them to decide what they want to do in the future.

“When I first took the job,” Mr. Hull elaborated,  “I told all of the staff at the moment how important Manitou High School is to me. I’ve been here for sixteen years and it has been a huge part of my life for a long time. I have my son, Jake, at the middle school, and my two daughters, Lucy and Alice, down at the elementary school. The Manitou School District, it’s like home to me, and I plan to stay as long as I can helping the school grow.” Hull hopes to be remembered “as kind and empathetic for the learning and development of where the high school ends up. If I did that, then I’d say I would have been a pretty good principal.”

All in all, there’s so much more behind the scenes of being the principal than students realize. It takes hard work, determination, and a whole lot of coffee to be able to pull off the things that Mr. Hull does. Mr. Hull has been here for sixteen long years and hopes to stay with Manitou for many more years as well to keep improving the quality and environment where students learn.