With a new semester coming, principal Bradford Hubbard announced his appointment as assistant superintendent of  curriculum and instruction for Community High School District 117 on Wednesday, December 7. Although this won’t be official until July 1, 2017, many were curious on how Hubbard came about filling this position.

“It was an extremely difficult decision,” Hubbard said. “I was approached by our superintendent, who said they thought I would be good at this job. They were wondering if I would be interested in it. And there was an interest in it, with respect to curriculum and instruction and working with both schools. I effectively dragged my feet for as long as possible, trying to make a decision because I really, really love this job. I told student cabinet that I didn’t know if I’d ever find a job that I love as much as the one I currently have.”

With a new position in the district comes many more responsibilities. Although the role of assistant superintendent comes with more leadership, being the principal means constantly supporting and being involved in sports and extracurriculars. Even though Hubbard expressed that that was one of his favorite parts of his job, he also explained how it meant less time spent with his family.

“With the Assistant Superintendent position, there is certainly a lot of work to do,” Hubbard said. “But there are some commitments that I have as a principal that I don’t necessarily have at the district office. I’m not really sure what the differences will be yet. There are day-to-day operations as a principal that you handle as they come your way: discipline issues, building maintenance, making sure snow is cleared, observations and different types of meetings. There are so many different things that come up. I think that the assistant superintendent is a bigger role in the district, but maybe a little bit more focused on an initiative, which is curriculum and instruction.”

As Hubbard takes this leap into a new position, he reflected back on his time at Antioch Community High School and how not only has he impacted the student, but also how the students have had such a positive impact on his family and him in his past four years.

“There are so many awesome memories here,” Hubbard said. “I have gotten to do things with kids that I don’t even think their parents get to do with them in certain situations. Being down on the floor at the state dance and cheerleading competitions, at a sectional track meet holding their blocks for them, and there’s been some really cool experiences with students in the performing arts. I got to play the ukulele in the holiday concert last year and perform in the drumline on Friday morning; those are some things that I will  never forget.”

Even though Hubbard appreciates the kindness and experience he gets from interacting with the students, he can’t even begin to show how thankful he is that they welcome and embrace the most important aspect of his life with open arms: his family.

“The one thing that I’ll walk away from here being most appreciative of is not the way the school and community has embraced me, but the way that they embraced my kids,” Hubbard said. “Seeing my face in the crowd on a blow-up head is crazy cool. But there was a football game this year where I was with my daughter Calla, and the fan section started to cheer ‘Put in Calla!’ I could bring them to work with me, and the way the students treated them made them feel like princesses. Those are the things they’ll never forget, I’ll never forget and we got to share them together. It’s just incredible.”