Update: New Stillwater Junior High Principal Plans to Put Students First

He's a familiar face at , and after serving as interim principal for the past year, Chuck Ochocki was recently promoted to principal.

"Students, parents and staff were all very supportive of Chuck's candidacy for continuing leadership in that position," said Chris Lennox, assistant superintendent of Stillwater Area Public Schools.

Ochocki, 39, established strong connections with staff and students while serving as interim principal, Lennox said.

As principal, Ochocki said his goal is to keep teachers learning best practices.

"I think a part of my job is to continue the education for the teachers," Ochocki said. "It might be a new technique that might help kids learn something; it might be a new innovation that our kids achieve better, but that is my goal."

As a district, Stillwater is moving in the right direction, Ochocki said. The district's Vision 2014 strategic planning initiative will have it "moving from good to great," he said.

Just being around the students and teachers at Stillwater Junior High keeps Ochocki energized throughout the day.

Ochocki particularly enjoys participating in the school's advisory program, which takes place the first 20 minutes of each school day to address academic achievement and character building, he said; noting that his group consists of 15 students he guides in those areas.

When Ochocki is not at work, he said spending time with his family, wife Dana and sons Joaquin, 5, and Tomas, 3, takes precedence.

He also spends time training for the Twin Cities Marathon, coming up in October, and his morning routine consists of a 9-mile training run on the east side of St. Paul near Lake Phalen, where he currently lives.

"I was an athlete in college," he said. "In high school I played soccer and so it became just a weight-loss plan for me. Now what it does is it gives me time to think.

"So it's just my way of working through whatever the problem might be," he continued. "It's just a way for me to reduce stress and keep focused on what needs to occur, but then work through whatever issues may be surfacing, either at school or whatever it might be."

Ochocki was a history major at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Va. His favorite era in history is the Civil War and he said he enjoys telling Civil War-related stories.

Ochocki came to Stillwater in 2008 after serving as assistant principal at South St. Paul High School. Prior to that, he was a social studies teacher in the same district.