The departure of five year principal Dr. Scott Poole left a hole in the Chantilly community and a challenge for his successor. The new principal, Dr. Amy Goodloe, hopes to fill that hole by connecting with students and staff and building relationships. Although she has been principal since March, she will begin her first full school year as principal of CHS in the fall of 2023.
“I’ve learned a lot in my years of being principals at different schools,” Goodloe said. “I think there’s a lot of common strategies that work really well. My focus is on developing relationships and elevating voices. What I notice here is how articulate and insightful students are in high school, so I’m really spending a lot of time leaning into time with students to hear student voices.”
In order to create her plan for the next school year, Dr. Goodloe intends to obtain student, staff and parent feedback through surveys and meetings with student groups and classes. This will enable her to get an idea of everyday life at CHS and how it can be improved.
“I’m going to take all that information together and look for common themes to help guide the direction for next year, but that’ll have to be in partnership too, with our administrative team, with our faculty and our student leadership to really decide on that direction,” Goodloe said. “I want to focus on how we make connections across our Charger community. That is going to be a big theme in what we do in order to support students.”
Some students are already noticing a positive change in the community ever since Dr. Goodloe joined. She regularly attends sporting events, theater productions, art shows and academic events. In addition, she introduced the initiative of having therapy animals visit the school the week before advanced placement exams start. During lunches, students were able to pet animals such as rabbits, dogs, snakes, miniature horses, goats and even alpacas.
“I feel like I’m more involved in the community,” freshman Choks Ramanathan said. “I’ve noticed that she interacts with students a lot, like whenever she sees somebody, she always says ‘hi’.”
Students, however, are not the only ones who have taken notice of Dr. Goodloe. To some staff members, her first few weeks at CHS have been reminiscent of the previous head of administration.
“I have noticed that like Dr. Poole, Dr. Goodloe has done a great job to include student voice and feedback from our staff in the plans, and vision for our school,” assistant principal Kristi Layman said. “It’s hard to say what differences there are as we’re still getting to know Dr. Goodloe, but I appreciate how much she is visiting classes, hosting different sessions to get to know staff and teachers, and seems to be jumping right into life at Chantilly with both feet. She brings a lot of positivity and great ideas from her experiences in Fairfax County so I am definitely looking forward to learning more about her way of doing things.”
Dr. Goodloe looks forward to next year. She plans to add more wellness events and breaks for students and staff, such as the therapy animals.
“I’ve spent a lot of time trying to connect with our students, staff and with the community and families to hear about the great things that are happening at Chantilly, where we think we might be able to grow or do a little bit better, and then anything that I can do as the new principal to provide support,” Goodloe said.