On Thursday, June 4, Superintendent Dr. Tim Parson announced that Assistant Principal Dr. Sabra Albertson will take on the roll as of Albany Elementary School Principal for the upcoming school year.

Albertson will be following in the footsteps of Tim Armstrong, who decided to retire after 22 years as principal of AES.

Albertson’s first official day as principal will be July 1, 2020, with Armstrong’s final day being June 30.

Born and raised right here in Clinton County, Albertson has a vested interest in the Clinton County School District.

She has three children currently enrolled in Clinton County schools, one at AES, one at the middle school and one at the high school. Albertson also said she has a child in college attending grad school as well.

“I went to school here and graduated from Clinton County High School,” Albertson said.

Albertson said AES is like home to her, with it being the only place she has ever taught.

“I went to Eastern (EKU) and later got my doctorate at the University of the Cumberlands,” Albertson said. “As far as my teaching, this is the only place I’ve ever taught.”

Albertson said she has moved around in several different grade levels as well as some special education positions during her 14 years of teaching. During the past three years, she has been working as the assistant principal at AES for a total of 17 years with the Clinton County School District.

“I started in first and second grade special education and then I went into the second grade class room for a few years. I then went back into special education and then got my certification as a reading/recovery specialist,” Albertson said. “I did that for a few years and then went into the first grade classroom for a year and then back to reading/recovery.”

Albertson said being the assistant principal the past three years with Armstrong has prepared her to take on the role of principal.

“I feel like I’m ready and that’s because I’ve had three years of working under him. He (Armstrong) has really helped me a lot. He’s let me do a lot of things on my own and shown me how to do a lot of things that other principals normally wouldn’t have done,” Albertson said. “I’m sure there are a lot of people out there who have stepped straight into a principal position, but there’s no way I would have felt as comfortable as I do right now.”

With the uncertainty of if school will actually be back in session like normal or not, Albertson said it’s going to look a lot different next year.

“We are already trying to make plans for next year,” Albertson said. “We are trying to follow all the guidelines that are handed down.”

Now that a new principal has been named at AES, the search for an assistant principal will start with the job being posted for a minimum of 15 days, followed by interviews through the site based decision making council.

By the time school should start for the 2020-2021 year, both principal and assistant principal will be in place at AES.

“We are going to need all hands on deck,” Albertson said. “Hopefully the person coming into my spot will be able to feel really comfortable. All this is fresh on my mind. I will be right here, able to help them.”

Along with Armstrong being on site for the next month, Albertson will also have the office staff at AES to help her along the way.

“The staff here is wonderful,” Albertson said. “I feel like we are a big happy family and that’s why I feel like this is going to be a wonderful year. We all work together so good.”

Albertson said she is going to make herself always available to parents and believes having that type of relationship with parents is key to doing her job successfully.

“That’s the good thing about going from assistant principal to principal is I already have a good relationship with a lot of the parents,” Albertson said. “We are going to continue to do the pick up system as it is. Either I will be out there or my assistant principal will be out there every single day. I think it will help if two people know how to do two different things.”

With students being out of school since March 16, Albertson is eager to get students back in the halls at AES.

“I’m very excited to get the kids back,” Albertson said. “They’ve been gone so long already.”