Lance Harrell has a big job, overseeing Alexandria City High School, the largest high school in Virginia.
Harrell says he’s working 10- to 16-hour days, with the longest days being Fridays, when there are football games. “I think the biggest change is just the added hours that I’ve been working,” Harrell told ALXnow in an interview on Wednesday.
Harrell was named interim executive principal at ACHS in August, succeeding ACHS Executive Principal Alexander Duncan III, who left on June 30 after two years to become principal at Washington-Liberty High School in Arlington. Harrell was previously the lead administrator of operations and student support at the ACHS Minnie Howard Campus for two years.
Harrell works out of the same office as his old job and hasn’t moved into Duncan’s former office. Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS) provided no update on the principal search, and Harrell also declined to comment on it.
In many ways, Harrell says his work is a continuation of Duncan’s, and that he wouldn’t have been able to make a successful transition without help from his fellow high school administrators. Some minor changes, he says, are how he leads with visibility, communication, and collaboration.
“Each administrator has an area that they’re managing,” Harrell said. “I do lean on my own administrators, because it’s the largest school in the Commonwealth of Virginia.”
Harrell said he meets with his assistant principals and other administrators twice a week, and attends executive leadership team meetings and school-based leadership meetings once a week.
“I’m in the halls, so I am able to talk to the teachers and support the teachers,” Harrell said. “I’m in the common areas where the students are, so they feel supported and feel seen… I am in the halls, walking the halls with transitions, ensuring that our students are getting to class, having those conversations with teachers, seeing what they need, and getting into the classroom and doing observations and providing feedback to teachers.”
Joining Alexandria City Public Schools
Harrell, a Louisiana native, joined ACPS in 2014 as an academic principal at George Washington Middle School. He had the job for eight years, until he was promoted to ACHS in 2022. He was previously the principal at O.W. Dillon Elementary School, and before that an assistant principal at Ponchatoula Junior High School, both located in Louisiana. Harrell started his career as a middle school math teacher.
Harrell holds a Bachelor of Arts in Elementary Education from Southern University and A&M College in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He received a Master of Education in educational leadership from Southeastern Louisiana University.
Harrell’s first experience with students was when he was 16 years old, teaching Sunday school, he said.
“I worked well with the students,” Harrell said. “My mom was telling me, ‘You’re doing a good job,’ and I think that encouragement also helped. Being able to reach those students, have them come to me after Sunday school, and hearing them say they enjoyed it, that meant a lot to me. I think that set me on the path to teaching.”
Harrell said his greatest strengths are patience and the ability to motivate people.
“I’ve never had an issue with relating to students,” Harrell said. “I’ve always been able to motivate students. Students gravitate towards me.”
Transitioning between campuses
Controversy erupted last year after Alexandria’s student newspaper Theogony reported transportation issues with students being bused more than a half-mile between ACHS’s two campuses — King Street and Minnie Howard. Harrell said that the 13-minute transition time between campuses has now been reduced to 10 minutes, and that the school has reduced the number of transports by “a few hundred” students by increasing the student population at Minnie Howard.
Many of the student transitions between campuses were based on the school’s five academies, which were introduced last year, providing a clear pathway toward graduation/certification in a particular field for more than 4,000 ACHS students. Some students have to move between campuses depending on their academy.
“This year has been off to a good start,” Harrell said. “We increased the number of students that we have here by roughly 400 students. Last year, we were 1,600 students. This year, we are at 1,965 students, so we added roughly almost 400 more students. That took those students away from King Street, and now we have fewer students than we had in previous years at King Street. I think the previous year we were like 3,100 students at King Street, and now I think we’re at about 2,500 students.”
Free speech at Alexandria City High School
Theogony erupted another controversy last year when it reported that ACPS central office administrators attempted to censor the student publication. In addition to ALXnow, the news was picked up by outlets including The Washington Post, Patch.com, and The Alexandria Times.
Harrell said that students can write what they want, and are not censored by school administrators. He also noted that the ACHS journalism teacher reviews stories that students are writing, but that their voices are not stifled.
“The student newspaper has the autonomy to write as they feel,” Harrell said. “We meet with the advisor, she’ll review those stories with us, but as far as us giving input and saying no, that’s not happening.”
Moving forward
Harrell said that his favorite part of the interim executive principal job is interacting with students and teachers.
“That’s my personality,” Harrell said. “I enjoy supporting teachers. I enjoy making sure students feel seen. That’s the biggest thing. I want students to feel seen and feel like they belong in this school.”
Harrell has worked at the school for nearly three years and says that he now sees students he oversaw at George Washington Middle School.
“I’ve known a lot of these students since they were in sixth grade,” Harrell said. “To see the growth of a sixth grader to a ninth grader, but also then you come in, you have these wide-eyed ninth graders come in, and then to see the development of that student from a ninth grader to a 12th grader. That’s what amazes me. Just seeing how much those students have grown, that’s probably one of my most favorite parts of the job.”
At the end of the day, Harrell said he wants to be remembered as an educator who made a positive impact on students.
“I have so many students with whom I’ve formed relationships,” Harrell said. “It’s about being a positive role model in those students’ lives, and being able to have a positive impact in their lives.”
