New high school principal settles right in to new role

PINE PLAINS — Tara Horst has her hands full these days getting to know the Pine Plains Central School District.

As the new principal at Stissing Mountain High School, she’s got a lot of catching up to do. The end of the school year isn’t really the normal time to be making big personnel changes, but Horst is looking toward the benefits that the unusual timing affords her. Perhaps it was fitting that her first day was May 15, a Friday.

“It’s odd, but it gives me this extra opportunity to meet the kids,� she said, “and then I have the summer to process everything.�

Horst comes from the Red Hook School District, where she was the assistant high school principal for four years. Red Hook is bigger than Pine Plains, but as she points out the switch isn’t as extreme as, say, moving to Beacon.

“Kids are still kids,� she says of the change. “They still face a lot of the same issues. It’s not so much apples to oranges as Granny Smith to red delicious.�

Horst is determined to meet the students and to have a very hands-on approach to being principal. With every student required to be enrolled in a social studies class, she has been busy attending each one as a way to ensure she meets every individual student.

As far as the school adjusting to a new principal, and a principal adjusting to a new school, Horst said that Pine Plains “is making great strides academically over the last few years. It’s a challenge to say, ‘I’d like to get in on that process.’

“You ease in,� Horst elaborated on her role right now. “You don’t fix what’s not broken.�

Still, the principal has a few ideas up her sleeve that she thinks can strengthen an already strong educational program in the district.

“There’s all the things that look good on paper, like academics, offering a good variety of classes, decreasing the dropout rate,� she acknowledged. “But equally important to me are issues like bullying, harassment and character education. I’m interested in getting the school to feel like a community, and the effects of that will overflow into the ‘hot-button’ issues.�

One specific is Rachel’s Challenge, an organizational program founded in memory of the first high school student killed in the Columbine High School massacre. Horst brought the program to Red Hook a few years ago, and said that it had a “huge impact� on the school. Since then other districts have adopted the program, and Horst is eager to introduce Rachel’s Challenge to Pine Plains.

She also will be pushing for awareness seminars for parents on teen issues and bullying and harassment, working with the Council on Addiction Prevention and Education (CAPE) and the Dutchess County Youth Bureau.

There are some adjustments from Red Hook to Pine Plains, most notably the agricultural programs that play a much larger role here than at her old district. But the new principal is learning, and is more than up for the challenge.

“Everybody’s been real welcoming,� Horst said about her transition, and she is looking forward to reaching out to the entire community. “I’m down to earth and approachable. I know something about a lot of things, and you’re just as likely to see me at the talent show as Ag Day. I don’t like to stand on the sidelines. I like to be involved.�

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