As the school year comes to a close, so does Principal Shahveer Dhalla’s first year as the Head Colt. Though Jennifer Young’s leaving left many with heavy hearts, Dhalla easily stepped up to the plate and helped make this year successful.

“It’s been a fun year, Arlington High’s a special place,” he said. “I always explain to people, you don’t understand the draw until you’ve been here as a student, teacher, or administrator, but once you have, you know there’s not a better place.”

From the moment he got here, Dhalla made it a point to get acquainted with everyone and get the lay of the land.

“For the most part, I just wanted to see what was going on,” he said. “It’s been two years since I’ve been in the building, I wanted to see if there was anything we needed to change or address, but not make so many quick changes so fast.”

Though having a new principal did bring some new ideas and changes to the school, Dhalla has made it a goal to not let the heart and tradition of Arlington High deteriorate.

“I don’t think you’ll encounter another school in the district or the area that has as many traditions as we do, so it takes work, and it takes effort to keep those intact,” he said. “That’s one of my primary goals.”

Being named as principal so close to the beginning of the school year did present a challenge, but Dhalla stepped up with little intimidation.

“I was named at the board meeting the Thursday before school started so in a way I was nervous,” he said. “I had a lot of requests, ‘Can we change this, can we change that?’, and I was like, ‘Well, it’s been put in place for a reason, and I don’t want to come in and do any sweeping changes off the bat’, so that was hard.”

Dhalla persevered though and now feels right at home.

“You know it’s funny,” he said. “Your first year in a new position is always your hardest but this year, it’s been hard, but I haven’t felt nervous. It feels like your favorite t-shirt, the school feels right, just being in this position.”

With a new principal, changes are going to be made, and one of the changes that Dhalla is proposing for the 2015-2016 year is the introduction of a Plus Period. Essentially it is a 30 minute study period in the middle of the day.

“The Plus Period is something that AHS actually looked at two years ago, but for whatever reason it didn’t go through,” he said. “This year we’re making it happen.”

This Plus Period has been created with all students in mind. Whether they need aditional time with a teacher or just need time to study, that time will now be built into the school day.

“The big thing for Plus is that it gives kids an extra opportunity, so if you need help in a class, you’re going to have an extra 30 minutes in the day to get that help,” he said.

Students that are not struggling as much will be able to go to other classes for additional learning opportunities.

“Eventually, we’ll add it to where you can go get enrichment,” he said. “So if you’re a choir kid and none of your teachers need you for tutoring, you can go to choir.”

The need for tutoring has become evident to Dhalla, and with this new Plus Period, he’s hopeful that more students will have higher grades in their classes.

“I don’t know that we all get it the first time,” he said. “We have a tendency in education that we cover material, we test on it, and then we go to new material. The Plus Period gives us a chance to give you material, give you an assessment over it, and then, if you don’t understand it, give you a little more help during the Plus Period, and then give you the test over it.”

Dhalla also sees the Plus Period as helping cut down on the large number of students who drop out.

“We have a lot more freshmen enrolled than seniors, and that worries me because that means we have students dropping out,” he said. “This is a way to make sure we’re keeping up, and our kids have the opportunity to keep up so they don’t feel like they’re not successful.”

Dhalla hopes that with these changes, and other ones he will make in the future, he can make a positive impact on the school.

“Every one of our kids that walks through the halls needs to be successful, and have the support necessary to be successful,” he said.

As his first year winds to a close, Dhalla looks back at what he’s done and keeps an eye on what he still wants to do.

“I keep a little journal, actually it’s a Word document on my computer, and it’s a to-do list,” he said. “And it’s funny, as a junior high principal, I was pretty consistent about taking things off my list, I would scratch them out or mark them off. As a high school principal, it’s a little more daunting. So there are things that slip to the end of that list as you create more tasks for yourself, and so it’s definitely something I’ll sit down at the end of the year and say, ‘Oh, I really needed to do this,’ or ‘I really needed to do that’. It’s just about continuous improvement.”

At the end of the day though, Dhalla feels incredibly lucky to be able to have such a great position at such a great school.

“We have the best students here, the best faculty, the best staff,” he said. “I consider myself very blessed to be here and have this opportunity.”