Armijo’s first female principal

This story first ran September 1, 2017

Ms. Sheila Smith has been working in schools for the past 34 years, but this year she started her first year as principal of Armijo High School

She started her educational career as an English teacher and instructional coach at Vallejo High School, and then became an assistant principal for Davis High School. She moved on to become an assistant principal for Armijo before being chosen for her current position.

Ms. Smith is originally from Missouri and said, “I was just drawn to the teaching and education career.” Her own high school experience was completely different from her experiences as an adult. She went to a very small rural school, starting in first grade at a school that housed students all the way until eighth grade. Then she attended a very small high school which was 15 miles away from her home. She graduated from a class of 23 students and explained that there was no diversity, a completely different environment than that of the schools in her career. There was always an interest in working in an area like Vallejo and Fairfield.

While teaching takes up a lot of her time, Ms. Smith likes to read and write. She also does Crossfit and enjoys cooking and spending time with her friends and family. “My first days at Armijo as a principal have been wonderful,” she said.

Her goals for the school are to “make Armijo a place where students and staff are excited to be,” she said. She also wants it “to be a community where people work hard, have fun and care for each other.” She is most excited seeing the staff work with the students for achieving success.

Expectations are a necessary part of communication and Ms. Smith expects the students to come and have respect for their community, always looking for ways to relate with each other and be safe. She hopes to see students and staff follow the Armijo Way and to work out conflicts in a non-violent manner.

Some things that she wants the students to expect from her are that she will be present and visible, that she will listen in conversations. “I might not always say yes for some things but I would rather have a talk and come up with a compromise, respecting and preserving the ideas,” she said.

With the help of events like The Week of Welcome, Freshman Orientation, Coffee with the Principal and more, Ms. Smith believes that the atmosphere of Armijo is changing already. She also is trying to improve the atmosphere by addressing the concerns of teachers so that they can do their jobs “without worrying about finding a parking space in the morning,” she said “We are reaching out and making ourselves available to hear people out and make every person feel like they have a voice and have a ownership about things that happen around the school… [we are] talking about association and bringing out education for the parents, encouraging everybody to have leadership roles.”

In the end, Ms. Smith said said that she would like to have open communication with the students and, if people feel that they are not feeling good about being at Armijo, that open conversations can be done to make things better. “Starting good and coming out good, no matter if there are bumps, using communication as the role”, she said.