Highland Park High has a new principal, but she's a familiar face to the school

Juli Watson may not be from Topeka, but you’d be hard pressed to know it.

It was about two decades ago that the Connecticut native first met Dale Cushinberry, then-principal of Highland Park High School, at a career fair in Missouri. From that moment, Watson was sold on Cushinberry’s description of the school’s approach to education.

“He had the same kind of style as I did,” Watson said. “It's all about kids, 100%, and relationships were very important to him to build children — who other people might see as ’not going to make it’ — and help them to achieve their goals and know all that is possible.”

It would be a few years before Cushinberry had a job to offer her, but in the meantime, Watson volunteered with the Peace Corps. When Cushinberry called again, Watson hardly had to think before taking the job as a freshman English teacher.

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Juli Watson following in Dale Cushinberry's footsteps

Fifteen years later, she’s sitting in the job Cushinberry once held.

Watson on Friday started her first day as principal at Highland Park High School, succeeding John Buckendorff, who is moving to Topeka West.

It’s a path Watson felt called to follow nine years ago, when she moved from a strictly classroom teacher role to become an instructional coach, then an assistant principal and most recently, an associate principal.

“I truly believe I’m where I’m supposed to be because there are kids who I wouldn't have had hands-on experience with if I were just in a classroom,” Watson said. “I would have missed them, I wouldn't have been able to help them to graduate and now I do because that's what I work with are all the kids now.”

In her 15 years at the school, Watson has come to know Highland Park as a magical place, especially in its ability to just make things happen. She knows the school, in the past, has had a reputation as being somehow lesser than its counterparts in Topeka High and Topeka West, but she challenges the community to see Highland Park for the relationships and work its kids continue to put in.

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Many of the schools’ students do come from more challenging backgrounds, but the relationships Highland Park faculty build with students allows the school to dream bigger and better.

“It's all about the time we spend with them. It's all about the expectations that we all strive for,” Watson said. “We don't lower our expectations. We keep them high, and kids come up for us like. Obviously, not all of our kids are there, but even with our highest kids, we push them to higher levels.

“We know all of our children,” she continued. “We know their stories, we know their strengths and we know their struggles.”

Beryl New, director of certified personnel and equity for the district, said Watson has grown up professionally in the district.

“She holds students to high standards and high expectation, and I think that's why parents respect her and support her, as well as the young people,” New said. “They appreciate the fact that she's firm but also very kind and takes care of her students.”

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Restoring Highland Park's traditions and building Girl Up club

As principal, Watson said she wants to help restore some of the school’s traditions and bring back some of the build up of excitement and pride in the school that COVID dampened, as well as more fully restore the school’s selection of concurrent enrollment classes for college credit. Many of the school’s students graduate not just with a high school diploma but with associate’s degrees and certifications.

Additionally, Watson wants to continue to grow the Girl Up student club, in which Highland Park girls learn about life skills like healthy eating, self-defense, car maintenance and health.

That club has ballooned from just under a dozen girls a few years ago to about 120 this year, and Watson hopes to expand the program into middle and elementary schools by having the high school girls mentor their younger counterparts.

“We can grow the next crop of my Girl Up club before they get here,” Watson said.

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Lost on outsiders is the family environment that teachers try to build at Highland Park, Watson said. In a high school of 820 students, it should be harder for students to slip through the cracks, and getting students to reach their dreams and goals is every teacher’s priority, she said.

“The saying, ‘It’s great to be a Scot’ — it’s not just a saying for us,” Watson said. “It’s personal, and although I didn’t graduate from here, I choose to be here every single day. I could be anywhere. I could teach or lead anywhere.

"But I chose to move to Topeka and teach at Highland Park because it’s a school I take pride in, and this is where I want to be.”

Rafael Garcia is an education reporter for the Topeka Capital-Journal. He can be reached at rgarcia@cjonline.com. Follow him on Twitter at @byRafaelGarcia.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Juli Watson starts as new Highland Park High School's principal