Many things can happen within 80 days, and Mr. William Deal, the new principal of Freedom Area High School, is starting to take advantage of this.

While students can easily tell that there’s a change in leadership, they might not realize what Deal has changed at FHS. One of the changes that students weren’t able to notice was the teachers’ lesson plans.

“The way teachers were doing their lesson plans was kind of very long and arduous and involved, so I wanted to simplify that process a little bit for the sake of teachers and to make that process hopefully be a little more meaningful,” Deal said. He hopes that the students will be more impacted by the lessons as a result of the change.

FHS is the third school that Deal has worked at, but he has experience with technology that can contribute to improvements and changes in our school. Deal taught Chemistry at Mechanicsburg Area Senior High School before he became principal at Berlin Brothersvalley High School.

While at Berlin, he was part of an 1-1 iPad ratio program.

“With my background in the iPads, I know that’s something that there’s some interest in. I’m not necessarily to the point where I [want to] say, ‘we’re going to get rid of the laptops and we’re going to iPads.’ But it’s something that, with my background and experience there, I think we can at least think about or put some thought behind it,” Deal said.

Deal isn’t planning on making major changes during his first year as FHS principal.

“Because there’s been a lot of change over the past couple years, I don’t want there to be a lot more change just by virtue of me being the new guy,” Deal said. “I need to take the year to learn, to see what’s in place, to see what changes have been made and just let that be a constant this year without there being more change.” With Deal’s experience with technology, he plans to improve how it’s handled in the future.

Many projects that promote student recognition, like Student of the Month, the H.O.P.E. Award and the Principal’s Advisory Council (P.A.C.) will be continued this year.

“I know Mr. Dadich tried to do a lot to build students up and make them a very important part of the school community, so that’s certainly something we want to keep,” Deal said.

Although his initial impact wouldn’t be defined by major changes to the school, his character and personality contributes to his ultimate impact in the district.

“He brings a calming influence to our district and does a very good job of analyzing each and every situation differently and making decisions that are in the best interest of our students,” Assistant Principal, Mr. Frank Hernandez said.

“We have a lot of phenomenal things going on here. We’ve got great teachers [and] we’ve got great students, but there’s always little tweaks that don’t necessarily take a lot of work but have a big impact. Sometimes, fresh eyes from outside help us to see those things,” Superintendent Dr. Jeffrey Fuller said. “I think Mr. Deal can even tweak that a little bit to make FHS an even better place than what it was.”