LHS Principal Taking New Job

LAKELAND | Mark Thomas, principal at Lakeland High School for a dozen years, will be the new boss at Sleepy Hill Middle School next year.

Fewer hours on the job, a smaller school and a new challenge were all factors in Thomas' decision to seek a transfer, even with a cut in pay.

The job at Sleepy Hill in North Lakeland may ease what has been an 80-hour work week.

"I may be able to cut it down to 70," Thomas said.

Thomas, 54, will move from a school of about 2,500 students, which includes Harrison School for the Arts, to one of 1,080 students.

His yearly salary will decrease from $93,879 to $86,879.

"Lakeland's a great place," Thomas said. "I've had a lot of fun."

Thomas will succeed Sleepy Hill acting principal Samuel Wright, who had retired from Kathleen Middle School before taking the interim position at Sleepy Hill Middle this year. A new principal at Lakeland has not been named.

Being principal at a middle school is nothing new to Thomas.

From 1994 to 1996, he was principal at Southwest Middle School in Lakeland. In 1996, he became principal at Lakeland High. He was principal until 2002 when he left to become the director of information services with the district. In 2003, he returned as principal at Lakeland.

He has been with the district since he started as a teacher at Bartow High School in 1984.

Thomas talked about a new job with Superintendent Gail McKinzie earlier this spring and told her he hoped to be transferred.

On Tuesday, he said that he wanted to focus more on instructional practices for teachers and to spend more time with his son, who will be a freshman at Summerlin Academy.

He said that Sleepy Hill will be just as challenging as Lakeland.

"There's never a time when a student goes through so much change," Thomas said.

[ John Chambliss can be reached at john.chambliss@theledger.com or 863-802-7567. ]