Principal of PLC at Work® Project School Wins Top Honor

Bloomington, Ind. (June 9, 2020)—Solution Tree announced today that Darin Landry, principal at Lakeside High School in Hot Springs, has received the 2020 Principal of the Year Award from the Arkansas Association of Secondary School Principals.

“It is because of the work of the staff at Lakeside High School that I have been named Arkansas Secondary Principal of the Year,” said Landry. “Our staff is strong, dedicated and passionate about our students, their success and their futures. It is truly an honor to lead this group and impact the lives of students and our community every day.”

Last year, Lakeside High School, led by Landry, applied and was selected by the Arkansas Department of Education, in partnership with Solution Tree, to participate in the PLC at Work® Project, an ongoing program to develop and expand the Professional Learning Communities at Work® process across Arkansas. As part of the project, Lakeside staff receives three years of intensive job-embedded training, observation and coaching to build a strong culture of collaboration that enhances student learning.

Sarah Schuhl, one of the coaches working with Lakeside, praised Landry for his work as principal and called the award “a well-deserved honor.” She continued, “He is quick to recognize that Lakeside is a high performing school because of the dedication to student learning his administrative team and staff challenge themselves to achieve. He is both optimistic and passionate about strengthening the work of collaborative teams to give every student opportunities beyond high school.”

Over the past year, Landry believes Solution Tree has played a critical role in Lakeside’s improvement, as well as his personal growth as an administrator. “With the support of our Solution Tree coaches, I have become a stronger leader, my staff has become more collaborative and our students have been able to recognize their learning and strive even further for excellence,” he explained.

Landry and Lakeside’s entire school community have received several other accolades during his tenure. Landry was awarded the Arkansas Association of Instructional Media Administrator of the Year Award for 2015. In 2019, U.S. News ranked Lakeside number nine on their list of the Best High Schools in Arkansas, and the Washington Post named the school as one of the “most challenging” in the nation.

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