HC has welcomed a new head principal for the 2024-25 school year. Antonio Blackman, the new head principal, has a great deal of experience for this role. He has worked in school administration for almost two decades, most of this at Paul Laurence Dunbar High School. He has also worked at Lexington Traditional Magnet School.
“My experience with administration started at Dunbar High School,“ Blackman said, “as a[n] assistant principal in 2005. I continued my administration at Dunbar until 2021. Then [from] 2021 to 2023, I was an assistant principal at LTMS middle school.”
There are many reasons why HC was Blackman’s school of choice. Blackman made it clear that he believes HC has a great environment, which he has had personal experience with.
“[I chose to come to HC because of] the culture,” Blackman said. “My students, well, my children, graduated from Cassidy and Morton, so we knew about the rich tradition and the expectations at HC. So, that was one of my primary reasons for coming to HC.”
Although Blackman has not been at HC for long, he has already made his mark. A major policy change, and one that Blackman is very adamant about, is the change to the bathroom rules and regulations. Safety is one of Blackman’s top priorities at HC, especially concerning the bathrooms.
“As far as the changes,” Blackman said, “I think the restrooms are one that most people will point to. That’s a huge change. Our goal there was not to get students or groups of students to gather in the restrooms. We still want students to have access to [the restrooms], and so if a student just has to use it during class change we want staff there to open [the gate] and allow them access. We just don’t want twenty or thirty students in there. From being a former administrator, I knew that a lot of the safety issues, the vaping, the bullying, the harassment, was happening in the restrooms. Even some violent behavior. So one of my goals coming in is, I wanted to have some initiatives towards safety.”
A major program that Blackman has already implemented is the creation of a Principal Advisory Council, in order to allow the student population to have a voice in the changes being made at their school.
“I also have a Principal Advisory Council,” Blackman said, “made up of a group of students. We are actually meeting again [September 5th], just to look at things that we could improve on around culture, climate, logistics, whether it’s the metal detectors, [as] that’s a change that we have made.”
Blackman has also been working to increase HC’s outreach, mostly through the use of social media, an area in which he felt HC to be lacking.
“I knew that HC didn’t really have a social media presence,” Blackman said, “and so one of the things I wanted to do was create a social media page. We were able to do that, we have close to five hundred followers right now. [The accounts] are just to recognize our students whenever they are doing good things, whether it’s in the classroom, or on the athletics field. Also, our teachers: we wanted to do that [recognize them] as well.”
A new event that Blackman has spearheaded is the formation of Athletics Fun Nights, which Blackman believes will help enthuse students and staff.
“We had an Athletics Fun Night about a week ago,” Blackman said. “That night consisted of teachers getting in a dunking booth, we had food trucks out, [and] we had three athletics games going on at the same time. It was just great to have our staff out, food trucks, and really just a fellowship with the students and staff all at once. So we’re going to continue to do things like that. I believe that if students like coming to school, it helps them to learn better. I think that if teachers enjoy coming to work, they’re more effective.”
Despite these early accomplishments, Blackman is far from done. In fact, Blackman has already set his sights on other areas in which he is working to improve HC, including advisory. Although used for SEL and other work, advisory is sometimes seen as unnecessary, especially because many students do not effectively use their time in the class.
“If I were to have started earlier,” Blackman said. “One of the changes I would have looked at a little closer would have been advisories. Just our work around advisories; are we using our time effectively, is advisory a good use of students’ time? And then, do we need to have advisory every day? So, that is something that we will definitely look at in the future.”
Another change that Blackman is looking at is block scheduling, which will arrive at HC next year. Unlike HC’s current 6-hour schedule, a block schedule features eight classes, of which four are taken each day (additionally, class time is increased to ninety minutes). Many high schools in the area, like Paul Laurence Dunbar and Tates Creek High School, already use this system. Blackman is confident that this new system will give students more opportunities for all kinds of programs and electives at HC.
“Block scheduling will provide more opportunities for students,” Blackman said. “In terms of electives and credits, we will be able to have more students attend things like EBCE, Co-op, [and] internships. We’re excited about that. Block scheduling will start in the fall.”
Despite his demanding role and responsibilities, Blackman has also made time to attend HC events, which he remembers as a high point of his already-storied tenure.
“I was at a soccer game the other night,” Blackman said. “The volume is… a lot more than when I was an assistant, [I’m] not a fan of the volume, but that’s part of the job. I do enjoy seeing students, staff, [and] parents at a lot of different events. I’m just trying to use my experience to be the best I can.”
Clearly, Blackman has already made a huge impact at HC. Although he has a lot left to do, it is clear that Blackman is working to do even more than he already has, and that he hopes to make HC better than ever.
