Mr. Tenney is ready to take on new challenges with a smile.

Further Information: Washington Traditional School Prescott Unified School District Hear Principal Tenney talk about his new role at Washington Traditional School:   Get QuickTime for audio and video here. Get the latest version of Adobe Acrobat here.

Washington School has a rich tradition in the Prescott community. And Principal Harold Tenney has a rich history with Washington Traditional School.

Actually, for Tenney, who is the new principal at Washington, it's almost like he has finally come home.

In 1923, Tenney's father started school as a student at Washington School. His father's brothers and sisters also attended the red brick schoolhouse on Gurley Street.

Later, Tenney himself and his own brothers and sisters were students at Washington Elementary School from Kindergarten through sixth grade.

Early in his career, Tenney moved around a bit, but returned to the Prescott area with his family in 1985; at which time his five children also became students at Washington School. As a matter of fact, Mrs. Nicholas, who has been teaching kindergarten for forty years, taught Tenney's youngest son at Washington.

Now Tenney's just waiting to see if his grandkids will attend Washington School at some time in the future.

"I am excited and honored to be here," Tenney said. "This is certainly a place that carries great tradition (no pun intended), and great history - there's been a lot of people who have come through this school system, and interestingly enough, a number of the people that I've met in the school district were educated in Washington Traditional School. [Back then] It was Washington Elementary School, but it was certainly traditional in nature."

Tenney comes to PUSD from Heritage School in Chino Valley, a middle school where he served as Principal for 22 years.

When asked what the difference was between a traditional school and other schools in the district, Tenney discussed some of the specific curriculum used at Washington, such as the Spalding Methods of reading, and the Saxon Math program, and the nightly homework requirement, which produces rigor, but noted that in particular, "We aren't the only educators of children, the parents are the primary educators, and we are really in a support role. The blending of the family and the school, the morality, the core educational concepts that we use in all the grade levels I think makes it a traditional school."

Tenney also points out that in this world of technology, it's important not to neglect the modern skills of working with the computer. "It's not about that we're going to teach the kids the horse and carriage approach, we're going to teach those skills that will help them be successful in the technological world... There's a real good blend."

Tenney noted that Washington has excellent parental involvement, which was appealing to him as he considered accepting the principal's position.

Tenney said he is looking forward to meeting as many parents and their children as he can, and "I want the families to know that I have observed wonderful faculty in the first two weeks, and that's not just talk. I've seen the commitment by teachers, many if not all of them, show up a week early to get their rooms ready... All the staff has been extremely cooperative in helping me learn what takes place here... As far as the parents, I've met some of the pre-union parents that have enrolled and I have found that all of them are parents who love their kids and want the best for their children and have volunteered, most of them have said, 'what can I do to help in the school?' So that's been really a wonderful experience for me. And the children have all just been putting their hands out and shakiing it like they were taught, the right way to do that. It's just been a wonderful experience and I'm excited to be a part of it and I hope that it works well for them, too."