New Capital High principal confident with start of new year

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The new principal at Capital High School says he wants to build the school back up to where it needs to be this coming year following the resignation of former principal Clinton Giles, but is confident not much change needs to be made.

“I think that Capital is already there,” principal Larry Bailey said Wednesday. “I think there’s been a little bit of a bumpy road, so I don’t see that we have to make a lot of big drastic changes or anything like that.”

Bailey said some of his goals this year are to get his team of administrators to really connect more with their students.

“As an administrative team, we really want to be very visible in the school – in the hallways, in the classrooms and really be apart of the school,” he said.

Teachers and faculty worked throughout the summer months to prepare for the first week back, which is something Bailey said has certainly paid off.

“I think all that planning and preparation made this first week of school go much smoother.”

Preliminary results for the Smarter Balanced Assessment were released Wednesday. Bailey said he wants to use those results and build upon the school’s success.

“We’re going to look at those. We’re gong to find out what our weaknesses are. We’re going to address those and try to make some improvements,” he said.

Bailey grew up in Kanawha County. He’s a graduate of Herbert Hoover High School and West Virginia State University. He was unanimously selected by the Kanawha County Board of Education for the Capital High School job in April. Before accepting the job, he was the principal of J.B. McNabb Middle School in Montgomery County, Ky.