Lyon looks forward to new year as principal at AHS

Last month when the Alleghany County Board of Education named Barbara Lyon as the new principal at Alleghany High School, the transition was rather smooth.

At that time, Lyon, who had been assistant principal at AHS for 10 years, was the interim acting principal following the departure of Jeff Peal, whose resignation became effective at the end of the school year. In addition, summer school was in session in June, and Lyon has been AHS' summer school principal for the last five years.

"I'm a people person," Lyon said. "We have an excellent, very dedicated staff. I really enjoy the students, I enjoy talking to them, seeing their extracurricular activities. I truly want each child to be successful, no matter what field they're going into."

Lyon was born in Galax, Va.; her family moved to Alleghany when she was five, just before she started school. She grew up here, graduated from Sparta High School, then attended Mitchell College (then a private college, now a community college) in Statesville.

After getting her associate's degree there, she transferred to East Tennessee State University in Johnson City.

Lyon was married by that time, and her husband Danny was drafted, so she transferred to Appalachian State University so she could be closer to home and family.

A Sojourn in Alaska

This was during the Vietnam era, but Danny Lyon was not sent to Vietnam, instead being stationed in Anchorage, Alaska. Barbara Lyon therefore lived in Anchorage for almost two years.

While there, she worked for the J.C. Penney Company, which has one of its largest stores in Anchorage. Lyon worked in the auditing department; she was also a personal shopper and demonstrated products. "They were super, super nice to me; I really enjoyed it," she said.

She returned home to do her student teaching. Lyon graduated from ASU with a bachelor's degree in home economics education (now known as family and consumer science). She later got a master's degree in teaching in middle grades/junior high school with a reading certificate, then her administration certification, also from ASU.

Lyon said her role models were Celia Roten, who taught her in high school and who she later had as a teacher and advisor at ASU, and her mother.

From Glade Creek to AHS

Before becoming assistant principal at AHS, Lyon taught for 20 years at Glade Creek Elementary School. She taught science and health for fourth through eighth grades her first year, then in a self-contained fourth-grade class for 14 years, followed by five years in eighth grade. Lyon also served as assistant principal at Glade Creek her last few years there.

Last week Lyon, along with representatives of the county's other schools, presented a report to the school board on implementation of safety goals. Those steps include policies for dealing with violence in schools and other emergency situations.

Lyon cited such prescribed procedures among the changes she has seen during her career. "A safe school was an automatic thing when I started." In addition, she said, "There is much more emphasis placed on testing, accountability standards, than when I first started teaching."

Lyon wants to strive for academic excellence while addressing the stress that accompanies such emphasis on testing.

"From the unofficial results, we are improving on our test scores, and we want to do even better," she remarked.

The end of each school day, Monday through Thursday, is "fifth period," a time designated for teachers to offer remediation for students who need extra help. Lyon said she wants to protect that interval, from 2:50 p.m. until 3:15 p.m., for that purpose.

She also wants to foster more school spirit among staff and students.

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