News Photo by Julie Goldberg Alpena High School Principal Thomas Berriman gets ready for the 2018-19 school year on Tuesday.

ALPENA — Even though it’s still summer, Alpena High School Principal Thomas Berriman has been at AHS getting ready to start his second year as principal.

With one year as principal under his belt, there are going to be some changes and a lot of new things this upcoming school year.

“With the consistency of the building comes a lot of different changes and some different and exciting things are going on,” Berriman said. “It’s an exciting time of the year.”

Berriman will be working with two new administrative staff members since Assistant Principal Stephanie Hitchcock is now the principal at Besser Elementary School and Dean of Students Katie Nimcheski left for a new position in Cadillac.

“We’ve spent the past few days interviewing for spots, so that aspect of it is a little different,” Berriman said. “Last year, coming in I had a pretty consistent administrative team and this year is going to have a little change.”

Berriman said the school should ask the Alpena Public Schools Board of Education to approve hires sometime this month.

Throughout the summer, Berriman has been in and out of the building to get things ready for the upcoming school year. He said there weren’t a lot of things to work on in late June and early July, but now that the calendar has turned to August, things are getting serious for the 2018-19 school year.

“The district calendar just came out today, so we’re working on setting dates and getting our brains wrapped around what the calendar will look like for the school year,” he said.

Freshman orientation is Aug. 23 and Berriman is excited to welcome the new students to the high school. He hopes the freshmen get to know him at orientation and learn what to expect throughout the school year.

“The building may look big, but it’s really a small community within itself and we’re all here to help them and help them with the transition from junior high to high school,” Berriman said.

If freshman need someone to talk to, Berriman said he has an open-door policy. They can also talk to other administrative staff members or any staff member at AHS.

In his first year as principal last year, Berriman said he learned the flow of the building and getting used to all the events that take place. He also learned the culture of the building and what to expect with everything that takes place at the high school.

“You really have a lot more information as to how things happen and then you’re able to put your own spin on some things,” he said. “Coming in last year, everything was pretty well done to start the school year and this school year, getting things organized, getting things scheduled, getting things ready to go, that’s a little different.”

There is no back-to-school fair this year, so upperclassmen will have a time to go to the high school and pick up their schedules before the school year begins.

“We’re really looking forward to opening the doors to the kids in about a month, but there’s still a lot that we’re working on,” Berriman said. “I’m feeling confident about what the building’s like and what to expect.”