Chabot The Midway Elementary School staff has welcomed a new principal for the 2024-25 school year. Dr. Dan Chabot has made his way to Sampson County Schools once again after leaving his agriculture teaching position at Union High School in 2022.
“I’m extremely excited to be back home,” Chabot said. “Sampson County is where I call home, and it’s where my family’s at, so it’s extremely humbling to be able to walk back in and get to serve within the county that I live.”
Chabot has over 20 years of experience and has been the assistant principal of North Lenoir High School and Southern Wayne High School. But he says that becoming the principal of an elementary school will give him a lot of learning opportunities.
He began his new duties July 1.
“It’s been a great learning experience coming into the elementary realm after having that high school background,” Chabot acknowledged. “So, there’s going to be a plethora of learning opportunities from an elementary level when it comes to how things are done, but I feel that I can bring a set of good skills from the high school level, as well as an organizational level...”
He said having those learning opportunities was a big reason why he took the job as an elementary principal, even though he has spent his career working for high schools.
“I’m excited to bring that same passion that I have for education to what I’m going to call the sponges, you know, where it matters, where it begins and watching that growth take place,” Chabot said. “I heard years ago, it said never lose that childlike wonder, and I’m excited to see that in the student spaces here at Midway and learn something new and grow from that because if we’re not growing professionally, we become stagnant.”
And it’s because of this mindset that he is not nervous about starting his new job.
“I wouldn’t say that I’m nervous coming into the building. I would say that I am trying to come in with understanding that there’s going to be opportunities to learn new things, and instead of seeing those as hurdles, I’m the type of person that sees that as an opportunity to grow,” Chabot said.
Chabot has been working hard to grow his leadership skills, and it all started when he was working at Union High School, when his mentor first pointed it out to him.
“When I was actually in Sampson County, at Union High School, my administrator, my mentor really, (said he) saw great things in me, and my leadership of working with the National Affairs Organization and building community or having those times of building community,” Chabot explained. “She brought me in one day and said, ‘I see really great things in you…have you ever thought about being an administrator?’ And she really helped me to see that I had that leadership capacity.”
Chabot said having his mentor come up to him and talk about his strengths is what pushed him into getting his master’s/educational specialist degree, and later his doctorate. And it’s this moment that showed him what kind of leader he wanted to be — one that would help his employees find what they can do.
“I am the type of person that believes in servant leadership,” Chabot stated. “Working with the staff and students to build the community and continue a great legacy of pride at the Midway district. And that background of agriculture that I have really gives me that basis for kind of roll up your sleeves and let’s make it happen mentality.”
See this weekend’s edition for our story on the new principal at Union Middle School.
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