Although some students may have just said their first hello to assistant principal, Mrs. Donna Dome, she will be saying goodbye to North Penn High School, starting her new position as the principal of Pennfield Middle School on January 2nd. Finding out about the open position in the district sparked old memories for Dome who has much experience at the middle school level.  

“The majority of my career was at a middle school level. I was a teacher for fifteen years and an assistant principal for three and a half years in a middle school, so it just seemed like a good fit,” Dome explained.

Dome will miss the people in the building the most. Both the staff and students made her adjustment to the high school much easier. Going into a totally new position, Dome now feels more than ready after being at North Penn. Being an assistant principal here, Dome is ready to take on any challenges that come her way.

“I realized anything can happen at any time and you need to react to it immediately and positively. Also, you need to help all of the people involved in getting the help they need to make better decisions moving forward and to support them. Due to the wide variety, diverse student population, I’ve just learned so much from the students about who they are, where they come from, what their background is, what’s important to them and what goals they have for themselves. There are many different diverse goals and my job is to help support them,” said Dome.

The biggest challenge for Dome will be jumping in during the middle of the year. Dome’s plan on approaching the situation is to go in, look, watch, learn and listen. Trying to learn about the staff and kids first, she hopes to see what she can do to help after seeing how the school operates.

“The adjustment hopefully will go smooth. As a middle school principal, I am looking forward to working with the teachers and students, learning from them, and seeing what I can do for them to continue to help to move them forward. I am also looking forward to how I can best support them as a principal and work together with the office staff, and how we as a school can support each other. I’m hoping the adjustment is smooth, but I know it will be because there are great people on both ends of this,” added Dome.

Going from the high school to the middle school, Dome has some great advantages going into her new position. She hopes to bridge the gap for freshman between the middle school and high school, now that she has experience with both levels.

“The high school affected me by learning what the next step is. I know what high school looks like for a middle school student and what tools, I or my staff, can give them in middle school to be successful in high school. Going back to middle school with that perspective, I feel I have a little more to offer especially to the 9th graders. As they get ready toward the end of the year to come up here, I feel that I will be able to offer a lot more perspective with a lot more reality of what the high school is like, opposed to things they’ve heard,” said Dome.  

Her goal as a principal is to help bring the staff and students together to become united under a single goal. She is not yet sure of that goal since she hasn’t examined what they need and what is already in place. Coming in mid-year may be a little difficult, so she plans to see what is already in place that year, and then maybe start fresh again next September.

“I’ve been at other middle schools not in the North Penn School District, so hopefully I’ll bring some fresh ideas. Letting them know what has worked and letting them try it, or what didn’t work and not trying that there, I hope to bring new ideas. I hope to combine them with things they are already doing and see if we can make things more positive. I just want to try and give other perspectives and other ways to think about things, saying ‘hey we did this at this middle school and that at a different middle school, so let’s try it’. We will take some risks together and see how it goes, but at least I have some perspectives from other places,” Dome explained.

Knowing she has a great staff to take on these new ideas with, Dome is excited for this next step in her life. She plans on transitioning and going over to visit a few times in December, just to introduce herself to more and more people, but she has confidence going into this new position.

“My family is excited about my new position, but we still plan on coming here for sporting events and other events because I still want to keep my connection here at the high school. I am sad to leave North Penn. I love it here. I love the teachers and students here, the juniors especially because I have the class of 2019, but in general I will miss the people the most. I know they are going to continue to do phenomenal things and I look forward to seeing and hearing about them. Saying that, I also look forward to being part of the phenomenal things Pennfield can do as well,” reflected Dome.