Mr. Blechle met with this reporter Aug. 19 about his new position as principal and how he plans to succeed this year. Mr. Blechle was a teacher, coach and administrator at Chester High School before he spent last year at Columbia High School.

Question 1: What were you doing before you came back to CHS?
Mr. Blechle: “So I took a position as assistant principal at Columbia High School, and my main focus was discipline and attendance.”

Question 2: How did you find out you were going to be principal at CHS this year?
Mr. Blechle: “I interviewed for a few districts, and it’s a little bit different for every district, but this district was the same as most. Usually there’s a longer waiting period, but because of the need for getting a principal in the building as soon as they could, it turned around quicker. The superintendent gave me a call, and said that was the recommendation, and they would like me to come on as principal.”

Question 3: Was coming on as principal so late a challenge for you?
Mr. Blechle: “Absolutely. Actually, we haven’t even hit the first week mark of whenever I was hired to be principal here. In fact, last Friday (Aug. 12) at around noon or so, I was still working at Columbia High School as Assistant Principal. But it was definitely a shock.”

Question 4: Will this year be easier for students and staff?
Mr. Blechle: “Easier is a hard word to apply to staff and students. One person’s version of easy is different than another person’s. The main thing is I want staff and students to definitely feel more comfortable, lower anxiety, and definitely enjoy coming to work or coming to school every day. With COVID in the past, we can get back to some type of normalcy.”

Question 5: What are your main goals for CHS this year?
Mr. Blechle: “Because I have started so late this year, I can’t possibly obtain or reach some of the long-term goals that are going to take a decent amount of time and a lot of preparation, investigation, and data running. But some of the goals are to look at the systems that are in place and evaluate them, see if they are working and try to simplify them if they work better for staff and students. That’s one of the main goals. You can’t come into a new job, especially this late in the game, and start throwing everything out and start changing everything. That’s just not good for anybody involved, whether it be staff or whether it be students. Extreme change in a school setting is hard on everybody. I will do everything in my power to work and make this a great year for CHS.”

I would like to thank Mr. Blechle for taking some time out of his busy schedule and sitting down with me for a few minutes.