HAMPDEN, Maine — Hampden Academy will have a new principal when classes resume in the fall.
Leigh Larson, who currently serves as assistant principal at Wasilla Middle School in Wasilla, Alaska, will assume her new position on Aug. 1, Regional School Unit 22 Superintendent Rick Lyons said Thursday.
RSU 22 consists of Hampden, Newburgh, Winterport and Frankfort.
Lyons said Larson will succeed the retiring Ruey Yehle, who has been the high school’s principal since 2002 and who also has served as curriculum coordinator during her nearly four-decade career in education.
Yehle is staying on through the end of August to help with the transition, he said.
According to an article announcing the recent hire in the current issue of Link-22, the school unit’s newsletter, Larson earned her bachelor’s and master’s in education from Dotham campus of Troy State College, now Troy University, in Alabama.
For the last four years, Larson has been principal at Wasilla Middle School, which is part of the Matanuska‑Susitna Borough School District, located north of Anchorage. Before that, she was assistant principal at the middle school for one year and assistant principal of Palmer High School in Palmer, Alaska, also part of the borough, for three years.
She also taught fourth grade and high school world history in Bainbridge, Georgia.
“Ms. Larson is a good choice for Hampden Academy, Lyons wrote in his superintendent’s message in Link-22. “The selection committee interviewed her twice while she was visiting in Maine in the middle of March. When she became a finalist, a number of committee members had phone conversations with their counterparts in Wasilla.”
The final step in the selection process was a Facetime interview with Larson and two assistant principals at Hampden Academy, he said.
One of the reasons Larson decided to move to Maine is that her fiance has family in Levant and Bangor, according to the school district’s newsletter.
Lyons declined Thursday to say how many applicants there were for the Hampden Academy principal post but did say that there was an “adequate” number of candidates.
Larson’s annual salary will be $108,000, Lyons said. She has signed a two-year contract.