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HMS principal retires after more than a decade
Starting next year at Herndon Middle School the Jenkins era will officially be over and the school will be entering another chapter. Dr. Frank Jenkins will retire at the end of the current school year.
When Jenkins transferred from his assistant principal position at South Lakes High School during the 1996-97 school year to become principal of Herndon Middle, the school needed him, badly.
“There were some behavioral and reputation issues that I had to address immediately. Parents were walking the halls to make sure the school environment was safe when I accepted the position,” he said.
“Within 30 days, there were no more parents in the halls and teachers stood in the halls and kept order, along with myself, and we reclaimed that responsibility. I made it a priority to improve the community perception of the school.”
Although less controversial, Jenkins said some compared him to Joe Clark, the New Jersey principal made famous in the 1989 film “Lean on Me,” starring Morgan Freeman.
Art teacher Tony DeBenedittis taught at the school at that time.
"Dr. Jenkins was so dedicated that he stood outside the classrooms every day and made sure everything was in order," DeBenedittis remembers.
“I am highly visible. If you are in the halls, you are going to run into me,” Jenkins told The Times.
But Jenkins did more than restore order. He also helped to transform the school during his nearly 12 years as principal.
Asked what he feels is his top accomplishment, he replies that he has three.
“The academic program at HMS has always been strong, I inherited that,” he said. But the school is now fully accredited, working toward its No Child Left Behind goals, and has a four-year-old “Positive Behavior System,” Jenkins said.
“It reinforces the continuity of acceptable school behaviors. For example, we have orange traffic cones in the halls to remind kids that they are to walk to the right, the cones are visual reminders of that behavioral policy,” Jenkins said of the behavior program.
Under Jenkins' leadership, the school also helped the Herndon Free Clinic (now the Jeanie Schmidt Free Clinic) get off the ground by allowing volunteers to use the school in the evenings. “That was a phenomenal accomplishment,” Jenkins said.
Herndon Town Councilman and clinic board member Harlon Reece said the clinic will always remember Jenkins' generosity.
"He was very supportive and I actually think he might have been a little sorry to see us go when we got our own facility," he joked.
Aaron Sawyer, manager of The Closet and also a board member of the free clinic, said Jenkins will always be associated with the clinic.
"His generosity and his vision are his legacy," Sawyer said. "He always believed in us."
In retirement, Jenkins said, he plans to spend more time with his family and do some traveling.
“A couple of traumatic things recently happened to people near and dear to me, and I re-evaluated how hard I was working and decided that I needed to slow down and enjoy life a little bit,” he said.
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