New Northeast Principal Has Long Admired District

When the principal position at Northeast Elementary School opened up with the pending retirement of Joan Crowl, Sherry Herron practically jumped at the opportunity.

Herron knew well and had long admired the Glenwood Community School District after shadowing Glenwood Middle School Principal Heidi Stanley while pursuing her administrator’s degree six years ago.

“I’ve always loved this school district,” Herron said. “Working with Heidi through the AEA (Area Education Agency) I really fell in love with the people in the district, the town and the kids through that experience. At that time, I told my husband if a position in Glenwood opens up, I will be applying for it. It was just a great place to be. The feel and the culture and the people are so wonderful.”

Herron was formally hired as Northeast’s new principal Monday, March 28, in a unanimous vote by the Glenwood Community School District Board of Directors.

Glenwood Community School District Superintendent Devin Embray said Herron’s “passion for student learning and passion to work with staff” stood out during the interview process.

“She has a very good personality and is someone I felt connected really well with student success and working with staff,” Embray said.

Currently in her fourth year as the principal at Tarkio Elementary in Missouri, Herron is a Roseburg, Oregon-native who spent her summers with family in Shenandoah, where she and her husband James reside with their two children. Prior to moving into administration, she was a sixth grade teacher for eight years in the Essex Community School District.
Herron brings along a teacher first, administrator second approach to her role as principal.

“If you’re not a teacher you’re not going to be able to work with the teachers and understand how they are thinking and meeting the needs of students,” she said. “That’s always a teacher’s job. I feel students are number one and it’s my job to help either teach the teacher and also teach the students right along side them.”

She hopes that philosophy will well serve the school’s decorated pre-school through second grade early childhood development program’s more than 500 students.

“We’ve worked hard in Tarkio to build up our pre-school program,” Herron said. “But we don’t have quite the resources or the room to make it as big as Glenwood has it but I’m very excited to continue in Glenwood’s tradition of the wonderful things they are doing and continue to grow that program. They’ve worked hard to make this program what it is so I’m excited to come in and be a part of it.”

Herron takes over her new duties July 1 but plans to spend several days in Glenwood over the next few months shadowing Crowl and familiarizing herself with the Northeast staff and students.

“I really look forward to seeing how Joan ran things so I can hopefully fill those big shoes,” Herron said.

She and her husband will begin house hunting immediately in Glenwood but don’t plan to move until after their two elementary age daughters finish the school year in Shenandoah.