PRINCIPAL GIBBS

Service, Family, and Excellence: Interviewing New Principal of EPHS, Nate Gibbs

BY IKRAN ABDI AND TAMIA HASSAN

“If you could give advice to your 26 year old self–anything, what would it be?” asks Nate Gibbs, the new principal of Eden Prairie High School. “My belief is that like all of the wisdom that you need in life, and all of the insight and the knowledge that you need in life is actually already inside of you. And it’s just year by year it grows and changes and matures, but the core is inside of you.” Nate Gibbs was hired as the new principal in July. Gibbs Obtained his first assistant principal job at 26 and has past experience as principal of Chaska Middle School West, assistant principal at Minnetonka High School, and assistant principal at American Indian Magnet School in St. Paul, Gibbs has received impressive experience with leadership in and around the Twin Cities before deciding to finally land at Eden Prairie High School. As a principal and person, Gibbs has his own values and principles. Stating that principal and person overlap, Gibbs says his main values are built around service, family, and excellence. “I want to serve at a high level and provide a high level of support to the people that I work with, whether it’s adults or students, but also believe service should be a two way street.” Gibbs explains, “I really expect our students, especially as they rise towards their junior and senior year, to give back to the school community and then give back to their local community.” With Gibbs’ values being enveloping service and excellence, Gibbs states, “The way I approach my day is how do I get the most out of it in terms of impact on others, and then my own learning and growth and development.” As new staff enter the building this year, Gibbs further assures that these same themes will be seen throughout their leadership team, whether that being associate principals or deans. Gibbs further explains that his interest has always been around education: “I think I knew that I wanted to be involved in education. I just didn’t have a strong sense of what that career pathway could look like. I had a lot of mentors and a lot of really, really great leaders that I worked with that helped me imagine what my future could look like and then helped me navigate the pathway.” As Gibbs reflects on his past work in St. Paul, Gibbs confesses that he was drawn to Eden Prairie for a reason: “What I appreciate about Eden Prairie is the diversity of the school and the school community. Who we are as a high school community is reflective of the broader southwest Metro and I think it’s reflective of over time. To be in a school community that’s reflective of that is really exciting to me.” However, though Gibbs was drawn to Eden Prairie, applying for the job itself has not been easy for him: “ Applying for the job at Eden Prairie High School was something that was really outside of my comfort zone,” Gibbs says. “There are not a ton of people that look like me that are high school principals. And then there are not a lot of people that are my age that are high school principals. When I got here, it became really clear there are high expectations from adults, high expectations from students and then high expectations from the community here. You don’t want to let people down and you don’t want to disappoint people.”

Gibbs’s two key goals for the community following the pandemic are starting to make high school feel like high school again and having consistency around communicating with each other. After getting hired in July, Gibbs has prioritized hiring new staff and investing in new and qualified teachers, “making sure that we’re getting folks in front of students that are relationship builders, that value community and value diversity and then folks that have high expectations.” Operationally, Gibbs explains that things had to be tightened up. Because of common tardies and absences from students, Gibbs took steps to strengthen safety and supervision. “This isn’t gonna make every student enthusiastic or excited but that’s something that large high schools have to have.” Referring to the new mandates placed this year such as closed lunch rooms, hallway passes, and the first 15 and last 15 rule, regardless of the controversy surrounding the mandates from students, Gibbs reasons why these rules are necessary: “Whenever you have lots of students in a unstructured space, you want to make sure that you have adults being able to cover that space.” Gibbs received opposition from students who had previously experienced an open campus for lunch, however says that there is no efficient way to do that without disregarding security. “From a safety perspective, it makes more sense in my view as a principal to have students in South and East Commons. I can place the supervisory staff in the south and east and have an appropriate level of coverage.” With the October shutdown occurring during a lunch hour, Gibbs says the protocol of locked lunch rooms is required for just

such a case. “We had to really quickly transition hundreds of students from a common space into secure spaces. A procedure like that matters when there is an event in the building.” Gibbs proceeded to gather student feedback on the mandates by distributing a survey. Despite mixed reactions, Gibbs says these rules will continue in the coming years as he serves as principal: “In terms of having really high expectations on safety and supervision, I don’t see myself pivoting away from that.” Gibbs says, “I’ve had to make lots of decisions in short order, which have disappointed people. Sometimes stepping out of my comfort zone is knowing I’m gonna make a decision and people aren’t going to like me because of it.” To improve the high school, Gibbs is taking steps to get students prepared for their future. “How do we prepare students for life after high school? I really want students to, as they approach the end of their time here at Eden Prairie High School, have lots of ideas and access points, and then also be really well prepared.” Gibbs continues that he does not want students to feel as if they are pressured to go into careers their friends or family want for them. Instead, he wants to provide a space where students can learn about collegiate opportunities and career pathways.

Gibbs explains the concept of Pathways, an idea that allows students to gain experience in a career of their choice through classes that would prepare them for a career field after high school. Gibbs also intends to provide students with classroom opportunities that resemble a Senior Internship. “We want our students to have more opportunities to experience what the career field or what the workforce actually looks like, while you’re still in high school,” Gibbs says. Wanting to increase communication between students and himself, Gibbs plans to expand and grow the process of Eagle Voice. Currently, Gibbs is working on viewing and testing student submissions along with partnering with students around things that could be changed or solved: “When we’re not able to take an idea forward, the expectation is that we’re really transparent about why,” Gibbs says. The new decision to remove red graduation cords for academic excellence has also caused a vast amount of backlash from seniors. However, Gibbs states he is currently working to involve seniors’ opinions into the decision. As Gibbs plans for his following years at Eden Prairie, his values are shown through what he prioritizes and his current plans for students: “Safety and supervision is a core value for me and my leadership and something I take really seriously just given the size of our school.” Gibbs says, “We got over 3,000 people to support and 3,000 people that I feel responsible for every day and I take that really seriously.”