Interim Principal Isaiah Wyatt can sum his approach for the rest of the 2024-25 school year in three words:
“Listening, learning and leading.”
Wyatt, who became assistant principal of the Innovative Center for Personalized Learning in August 2023, has been named interim SHHS principal for the remainder of the 2024-25 school year. He replaces Eric Juli, who resigned nine weeks ago after serving as principal since 2019. Wyatt is the third interim principal of the high school since 2015 and the sixth man to lead the building in the last nine years.
According to shaker.org, the IC is a “non-traditional high school experience” that gives students more choice over “when, where, how and what they learn.” It is located on Lee Road in the Stephanie Tubbs Jones Community Center, but students are only required to spend 51 percent of each school week on campus.
Wyatt graduated from McKinley High School in Canton. He earned both his bachelor’s degree in physical and health education and his master’s degree in counselor education at Malone University.
Before coming to Shaker, Wyatt worked as an assistant football coach at Malone. He later worked as a school counselor at McKinley High School, and was an assistant principal in the Canton City School District.
During a Jan. 8 school assembly, Wyatt spoke to students about his expectations for the rest of the school year and the upcoming implementation of a walk-through weapon-detection system at the high school. He also talked about his experience as a student and displayed a slide that included his high school, undergraduate and graduate GPAs, which were 1.7, 2.8, and 3.5 respectively.
“I showed you that to be vulnerable and to tell you that I’m not perfect,” Wyatt said during the assembly. “To tell you that none of the adults in this room — none of us are perfect. I personally have been every kind of student that you could be. And it’s not about how you start; it’s how you finish.”
At McKinley, Wyatt advised a group of Black male students called the Mckinley Men of Honor. “I was able to shape my lens as an educator, and for that to be rooted in a lens of care,” he said of the experience. “Knowing that relationships are at the start of everything we do.”
Working at the IC allowed Wyatt to experience a nontraditional approach to education. “It helped me understand instructional practices in a creative, outside-the-box way,” he said. “How to listen to what they [students] want out of their experience and make it happen.”
At the IC, Wyatt often spoke to students about their progress on personal projects, and would offer ideas. “I may give the kid an idea or make a connection to a community member that may help with that student’s project,” he said.
Wyatt said that during his first few weeks as interim principal, he visited all the academic departments in the high school. He also met with the Student Superintendent Advisory Committee and junior Student Council, and visited Crew classes.
“I feel like I sensed joy from our students,” Wyatt said. “I was able to go in classrooms and the cafeteria, see students at games.”
Wyatt plans to approach his position as interim principal collaboratively. “My approach is going to be to listen, and my approach is gonna be to be visible – be on the ground so to speak, and work with our student body to understand what’s important to you guys,” Wyatt said. “[And] work with our staff to understand what’s important from a teacher and staff standpoint, and also work with our administrative team to make sure that I’m properly supporting them for the work that they’re doing to lead the building.”
Wyatt also aims to reduce chronic absenteeism. “What are the things that they’re facing?” he said. “What are the supports that are needed? What are the proper interventions that will get our students in the building?”
Wyatt said he is emphasizing Yondr pouch implementation to ensure that every student has their devices locked away in order to be engaged in classes. He also wants to connect with the community during his time as interim principal, and plans to invite residents to interact with the weapon-detection systems that students walk through upon entering school. He plans to be “visible and out and showing up at our events, showing up at our games and just trying to interact with people,” he said.
Progress will be a collective effort, he said. “The greatest thing is that it’s not just falling on one person. Everyone in the building is working together to be able to accomplish these things and also reset in a positive way.”
Spotlight Editor Olivia Cavallo contributed to reporting.
A version of this article appears in print on page 4 of Volume 95, Issue 3, published Jan. 24, 2025.
