LIMESTONE, Maine — Limestone Community School’s principal has been awarded the position of principal of Caribou High School, and will begin his new job on July 1, 2015.
Travis Barnes, a former Caribou Middle School teacher, has spent the last three years at LCS as assistant principal, athletic director and ultimately principal when Superintendent Susan White took over the district.
Barnes said he has big shoes to fill once current CHS Principal Mark Jones steps down. “Caribou High School is a quality institute. I think that both faculty and administration have made a very clear path for me,” Barnes said. “They’ve done a great job with the education they provide their kids.”
He’ll miss the students and staff at LCS, and can’t wait to dive into his new role. “I think my time at LCS has definitely helped me grow as a leader with the experience you get as an elementary principal, a middle level principal and a high school principal, and I’ll miss that. There are great people here who truly believe in the work that they do with the kids.”
His days at LCS have molded him into the administrator he is today. Barnes said being an active listener, and being able to work with both community and the school to provide an institution that’s good for everybody is important. Being a clear and effective communicator, with parents, faculty and the student body, he said, is what makes a leader of a school.
CHS is larger than LCS and Barnes said “that will definitely will be a hurdle for me. But it’s important for me to meet with the faculty and to get to know that school and the kids so that it becomes second nature to me.”
Barnes takes his new position at a pivotal time in education, and hopes to put CHS on the map, “Right now with proficiency based education and customizing learning to students, I think it’s an opportune time for us to make our mark as an institute.”
When awarded the position as principal he said he “immediately became very humbled to think that I was a student there, and that school provided me an excellent education and the opportunities I have today. As a school leader there I want to do that for those kids and I’m very honored to be their principal.”
Barnes said he’s blessed to work in RSU 39, and feels he owes it to the district to do the best job he possibly can.