T-L Photos/ROBERT A. DEFRANK ABOVE: Karen Taylor is welcomed as interim Union Local High School principal. She looks forward to working with students and staff to encourage leadership.

BELMONT — Union Local High School has welcomed a new acting principal since Superintendent Zac Shutler took over management of the district following the resignation of prior superintendent Ben Porter in August.

On Thursday, the board approved Karen Taylor as the interim high school principal for grades 9-12. She started at the beginning of this week. She has been with Union Local for six years, serving as an administrator of the Learning Center lab.

“I’m really excited about this opportunity to be able to be in this role in this district, and I’m grateful to the district and all the folks who had faith in me that I could lead in this capacity,” she said.

Taylor is in the process of meeting with all of the teachers.

“What’s most important to me is carrying on the initiatives and the vision that Dr. Shutler began here,” she said. “I’m working closely with him.”

She said the high school’s policy has been encouraging student leadership and initiative.

“Helping both students and faculty become effective and energized leaders,” she said, noting the former Principal’s Council of student leaders has since moved on to become the Superintendent’s Council to provide input and support to the administration. She is considering starting a smaller Principal’s Council to discuss matters of school operation.

“It’s important. Student involvement matters,” Taylor said. “Another thing that’s a focus of mine is always growing our staff to be the best instructional leaders they can be. I think there’s always things that we can do to strengthen what we do as students and how we teach, and to always strive to be the most innovative instructors we can be, and creative.”

She said her leadership style focuses on maintaining strong communications and encouraging the best performance from all involved.

“I think it’s extremely important to connect with every human,” she said. “Helping people to join in with leading any organization, but then there are times when I think it’s important for any leader to stand strong and be able to make the hard moves and the hard decisions.

“I have a lot of experience in innovative instruction, so I think leading instructional growth is definitely one of my strengths,” she said.

Taylor said she is not considering whether to seek the position on a permanent basis.

“Right now, I just want to focus on serving the school district as interim,” she said.

“She’s working with the teachers to continue to improve instruction, to continue to improve student engagement,” Shutler said.

“Having her in place, steadying the high school, being there to support the teachers and support the students is going to be a benefit, and it’s going to allow me to focus on some of the 10,000-foot issues with the district so we can grow, prosper and develop the business partnerships, develop the academic partnerships to provide our students with a number of opportunities,” Shutler said.

He said the position has been posted through Nov. 15 and there are several interested candidates. He said Taylor will likely serve as interim principal through the end of the school year.

Shutler also commended Bryley Jennewein, senior and member of the Superintendent’s Council, for his work and for encouraging other students to join.

Jennewein said he learned valuable lessons in leadership.