It has been a year since Mark Langer stepped up as principal of William Fremd High School, joining the Fremd community in July of last year. The Viking Logue interviewed Principal Langer in order to gain some insight into his overall thoughts about what has been already accomplished, as well as what he is currently thinking about for the future of Fremd. 

Langer was previously assistant principal of Conant High School, and just last year replaced former Fremd principal Kurt Tenopir. Since then, he has guided Fremd through the post-peak pandemic school year, as well as initiated clubs such as Latinos Unidos, a Black Leader Achievers Group, and the RISE group. 

What was a rewarding moment from your time here at Fremd as principal?

Oh, it’s tough to pick out one. I think just being able to kind of work through some of the challenges of last year in particular. Together with students [and] staff, and to be able to kind of pull off a successful year as a whole was very rewarding and I think what’s been great is this year, to be able to just kind of shift the focus a little bit and make Fremd the place we know it all can and should be, and continue to move forward.

What was a challenging moment or issue you needed to handle as principal?

I think just all the changing landscapes of last year was a difficult thing to navigate and you know, again, just having everybody together was, you know, we were all able to make it successful together.

What is your future plan or vision for Fremd?

I’m lucky. We have unbelievable staff. We have unbelievable students. We have a great community, so I walked into a great position, a great school. What I would like to be able to do is just continue to make Fremd a more inviting place where everybody feels valued, seen, heard. I think we do a lot of great things with a lot of students, and I just want to make those opportunities available for everybody.

After being the principal for Fremd for a year, do you recognize any future areas of focus? If so, what measures are going to be taken?

The other day I had my first meeting of my principal’s advisory board, and one of the things that definitely came out of it loud and clear is that students want to talk more about how to get better school spirit in our building, how to make the building even safer for students in terms of both physical safety and social-emotional well being. And then the third one was better communication. So some of those are easier said than done than others, but I think working, again, collaboratively with our staff, our students to make those things happen is important. I think school spirit is definitely something that I want to continue to push for.

And lastly, do you have anything you’d like to share with the Fremd community?

Just thank you for welcoming me in. It’s been a wonderful year, better than I could ever have expected and I just look forward to just, you know, continuing to help to grow as a person, as a principal, but also to help Fremd overall.