The National Association of Secondary School Principals founded and manages such organizations as the National Honor Society. They also advocate for school and student leaders.
Each year the group awards a school leader with the advocacy champion of the year for helping to elevate the voices of educators so that they're heard by decision-makers whose policies affect learning communities.
Chris Young, principal of North Country Union High School in Newport, is this year's award recipient. He recently spoke with Vermont Public's Mary Engisch about his life as an educator and advocate for mental health services in schools.
Mary Williams Engisch: Well, I'll ask you more about the award in just a sec. But I'd love to know more about North Country Union High School. How many students? how many teachers? What's the school motto? Give me all the good stuff about your school.
Chris Young: Well, our school motto is, "Achievement through perseverance," which I think is appropriate for our school located up here in the beautiful Northeast Kingdom, where we pride ourselves on our independence is well as our ability to work together as a community to do great things for our young people, as well as for one another and our neighbors.
We have 710 students. We're actually the largest geographic supervisory union in the state. And we have students coming from as far away as Lowell on one side of the S.U. and as far away as Island Pond-Brighton area on the other side.
Mary Williams Engisch: I understand you come from a family of educators, and that you do have strong ties to North Country Union. Did you did you graduate from there as well?
Chris Young: I did. Class of '88. Go Falcons! My parents both taught at North Country. My dad for almost his entire career. He did some wonderful things, like starting the drama program. He was an English teacher, as well. My mother was a social studies teacher, and both my kids went to North Country as well and graduated more recently than that, obviously.
Mary Williams Engisch: What is it about being an educator that feels like it's the right fit for you?
Chris Young: Well, I tried to try to deny it for a bit. When I went to college, I decided I was going to do something in business. Began my career in Massachusetts, and taught there for six years before becoming a principal. After that, moved where I started my career in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont.
Mary Williams Engisch: Well, you're also no stranger to educator awards. You were named the 2023 Principal of the Year from Vermont Principals' Association. This current award honors school leaders who advocate for other educators. And that sort of like trickles down, obviously, to help the student community. What does it mean to receive this particular award from the National Association of Secondary School Principals?
Chris Young: What was particularly meaningful to me was that when I was awarded the Principal of the Year by the Vermont Principals Association, I was able to travel to Washington, D.C. to meet the other recipients from around the country.
And the one of the themes of that gathering was how can we use our new platforms to advocate for students, for staff and for schools in general. Both back in Vermont for me as well as across the country. And so I dove into that.
The National Association of Secondary School Principals has wonderful resources. They have a press guy who has all sorts of contacts and will reach out with questions for the field. And I just started responding to them, and found that what I had to say seemed to resonate, and was honored to be recognized for my contributions to what I hope is a narrative that is emerging: that our students are both at once amazing, as well as in need of our help. I think sometimes we fall into this trap of it's either or, and it's not. It's both.
Mary Williams Engisch: Were you able to attend the Hill Day in Washington, D.C? Were you there with with all the other school leaders to meet with Congress and ask for their support?
Chris Young: I was, I was. It's such an impactful day, to see hundreds of principals working together and communicating the same message to our legislators. And our message this year is that we have an educator shortage crisis in our country. We have a student and staff mental health crisis in our country.
And depending on what Congress does, we are generally facing funding crises in our country. We feel compelled to share how each of those was plays out in our school and ask our legislators for help, and making sure that we can address the shortage and we can support students' mental health. And we can get the funding that we need to do the work that is so important to all of us.
Mary Williams Engisch: Newport is a city, but it's a rural city. What makes your school community unique in terms of how you retain educators, and how you keep staff, and how you can ensure mental health services that are accessible to your student body if needed?
Chris Young: I'd like to think that folks who are attracted to work at North Country or any of our elementary schools are folks who enjoy the outdoors, as many people do in Vermont. Again, they would gravitate towards a more rural area and appreciate the sense of community that comes with that, as well as the access to the amazing natural resources that we have in our area.
Beyond that, I think that I like to think that people recognize the work that we're doing in North Country is important, and want to be part of that. And that really, for me boils down to something that I've been passionate about, which is providing a comprehensive mental health support system for students within the school.
And that looks like we have 11 licensed staff members who are either school counselors or school-based clinicians are social workers, who are providing services for our students throughout throughout the school.
And hopefully, folks understand and appreciate that if we don't attend to the needs of all of our students, than the learning of all of our students is also impacted. And so that I think is something that that I'm proud of, and I think that people recognize and hopefully want to be part of, and that would be one of our biggest sells — that we are supporting kids. We're supporting teachers. And we really want, you know, folks to be part of that team.
Mary Williams Engisch: Well, Chris, as principal, I guess we sort of assume that you're always on the school grounds. But it sounds like your advocacy work takes you to other places beyond just the confines of your school and in front of the Vermont Legislature and also in front of Congress in Washington, D.C. How are you able to do that work?
Chris Young: Well, I couldn't do that without my administrative team. I have to associate principals who are amazing and keep things running. Well, maybe even better when I'm not here, to be honest with you. And as a superintendent, that is amazing, supportive also, and in a school board that not only supports my my work, but more importantly, the work of the school. And we were a supervisory union that passed our budgets.
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