It’s a challenge not many people have the courage to take on; with the construction project and future schedule dilemma, being the principal of Liberty High School is not the easiest job in the world, but Joshua Almy was willing to play the game.
The Road to Liberty
Even as a boy, Almy always knew what he wanted to become. “From the beginning, I knew I wanted to be a teacher. My dad was a teacher, and so was my mom,” Almy said.
After several years of teaching special education and math, Almy wanted to embrace his adventurous side and teach abroad before he settled down with a family. Sending out over two hundred resumes to international schools abroad, Almy landed a job teaching math in Thailand.
Following his year in Thailand, Almy returned to the South Kitsap area to teach and coach before moving to Beaver Lake Middle School.
Becoming a Patriot
Principal of Beaver Lake for nearly a decade, Almy “jumped at the opportunity” to make the transition to high school and join the Patriot family.
A passionate humanitarian and avid sports fan, he has already begun to get involved with students and staff, from working closely with the ASB and journalism classes, to looking into a renaming of 136th Street to “Patriot Way.”
“I think one of the things that I’ve learned as a middle school principal is the importance of a community within a school,” Almy said.
“I’m looking forward to maybe hitting the tennis ball with the tennis team, and maybe running with the cross country team,” he added. “The activities in high school were a big reason why I wanted to come back to it, because I remember how much fun I had being involved.”
Proud Philanthropist
Almy’s enthusiasm is not limited to sports—he is passionate about volunteer work and eager to describe past projects. He places special emphasis on his work with the nonprofit, Generation Joy, which grew from efforts in his first year at Beaver Lake to “collect school supplies and sporting equipment and books for about two hundred villages in South Africa.”
The project gave Almy the opportunity to travel through South Africa delivering the supplies, and the nonprofit has continued to expand.
“We work with about twenty schools now and the groups that are going to Africa every summer have expanded,” he said. “There are two teams that go every summer now of kids and parents and teachers.”
Fostering Support
Even on a smaller scale, Almy is dedicated to helping and supporting those who need it.
“We support people as much as possible, but we especially support people when they really need it and when that support is had to get,” he said. “And I may be one of the few people who might be able to support those people in those situations.”
Specifically, Almy is looking into getting transportation after school for students who need tutoring, but have no way to get home besides the bus.
“You look at the type of people who can get transportation for those kids after school and, well, that kind of falls on the principal.”
Of all the problems that will fall on the principal this year, the one most likely to strongly impact students will be the schedule change. Almy, who served as a co-chairperson on last year’s schedule recommendation committee, is prepared to take on the challenge, heading an all-Liberty committee of parents, students, teachers, and administration to determine Liberty’s schedule options.
“We’re looking at lots of different options; we’re trying to get as creative as possible,” Almy said. “However that looks, we’re trying to preserve the opportunities that kids at Liberty have gotten to have over the last seventeen years and trying to give kids what they need.”
“That’s going to be a challenge this year,” he added. “I can’t tell you right now how that’s going to look.”