New Ottawa Shepherd principals say adapting is key

Change is a regular occurrence in education, and Ottawa’s Shepherd Middle School now is in the hands of two new administrators who embrace and thrive in that variable.

Principal Jessica Larson and Assistant Principal Zach Vienne have come full circle, leaving the area where they spent their youth, getting through years of naturally occurring and pandemic-forced changes, and returning to their home area wiser and ready to impart those experiences in a new venue.

You can’t go into education without being flexible and the ability to adapt to change.”

—  Jessica Larson, Shepherd Middle School principal

A native of Ottawa and a graduate of Shepherd, Larson has been involved in public education for 17 years, starting with grade schools in her hometown out of college. She moved on to teach science, social studies and language arts at the middle school in Freeport for eight years before moving into a district office position as the multi-tiered system of supports coordinator overseeing discipline and intervention for the entire district the next two years.

Finally, Larson moved into an assistant principal position in the Belvidere school district before coming home to Ottawa, where she’s working with teachers who taught her when she was a student there.

“I feel it’s wise as an administrator to always remember what it was like to be a teacher because, ultimately, the students, the parents and the staff are the people we’re serving,” Larson said. “You can’t forget what’s happening in the classroom.

“There’s a lot more liability and legal knowledge needed as an administrator. When you’re in the classroom, you’re focused on your class and your students, that little microcosm within a school, and you don’t always know all the moving parts going on in the building, but when you’re an administrator, you have to think of the big picture, the entire school and how all those moving parts are linked together.”

Larson said she also believes teachers and administrators need to embrace the ever-changing technology that’s critical for students as they move upward into today’s world.

“Thinking back to the beginnings of public education [there were] the chalk slates the students wrote on, then paper was the new thing and calculators and now smartphones,” Larson said. “I can’t anticipate what all the future changes will be, but you can’t go into education without being flexible and the ability to adapt to change, the new things that come out. … I’m excited to be back home and to be passing those things on to our students and their families.”

Vienne also is returning to his roots after attending schools in Morris from fourth grade through high school. He’s been in the profession for 13 years, starting as a substitute teacher in 2009 after getting his first degree in paralegal studies from Southern Illinois University.

He achieved his master’s in elementary education and interned at Saratoga Middle School in Morris, then was a teacher’s aide there for another year and a half.

But it was in Clarksville, Tennessee, where he got his own classroom. After a friend married a teacher from that area, they suggested Vienne move, and that led to him teaching fourth grade there for four years.

After getting married to a local woman in Tennessee, Vienne chose to return to the Morris area, where he went to work teaching fifth grade at Mazon Grade School.

After one year, he spent the next four teaching language arts and social studies at Millbrook Junior High in Newark. In 2021, Vienne got his master’s in administration, leading him to his first principal job at Shepherd equipped with the crucial knowledge of the differences between big schools and smaller ones.

“In other states, a lot of the core is similarly aligned, and there’s not too much change,” Vienne said, “but the biggest thing I’ve noticed is the difference in teaching in little districts and bigger district. In little ones, there are more moving parts and a lot more top-down direction, and now I find myself in Ottawa, where it seems to be right in the middle of the two. It’s an interesting change of pace.

“It depends on who you’re working with, whether it’s easier or tougher to adapt to change. Communication is really important, coordinating when there’s a plan coming up to get the right information and feedback. … And that’s what we have here.”