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HHS Principal University

From Quinlan, he went to Denison ISD and remained there for the last five years as an assistant principal in the high school

"When I was at Whitewright, we competed against Howe and I always thought a lot of Howe," said Kempson "I always thought there was a good program here and good kids and really seemed to have things together."

With his admiration of the school system and the tight-knit community, he says it felt like a place he could easily fit in.

Some of his thoughts of Howe could be thanks to Howe Lady Bulldogs Head Basketball Coach Derek Lands whom he has known for many years

"He's always told me great things about Howe and I thought, this might be a great place for me," said Kempson "When I did see the job opening, I did call Coach Lands and ask him about more detail and he said great things about the teachers, kids, and administration "

Kempson says that the transition for him will not be a difficult adjustment from the point of going from a big school to a small school Most of his career has been spent at schools with very similar enrollment numbers as Howe The transition adjustment is going from assistant principal to principal

"We had a lot more staff (in Denison) to lean on with three assistant principals and four counselors," said Kempson "Here, everything is kind of on you, but that's the way I like it "

He says that no matter the size of the school, kids are kids and a principal has to be consistent on delivering discipline

"There's going to be a lot of good kids and there's going to be some that test you and you just have to be fair and understand that they are teenagers," said Kempson

Once a coach, always a coach and Kempson is definitely a picture of that statement He says his principal style will come from his i i hi

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"At heart, I'm a coach I want to make people better I want to make them better teachers I want to make the kids better students and I want us to be the best we can be," said Kempson "If there's something that they're going to keep score of, I want to be good at it, whether it's STAAR testing, band, ag, athletics, I want us to strive to be the best we can be "

Kempson has his work cut out for him as he began his position officially on Tuesday, May 27 and immediately had a list of openings to fill Among the staff needed were English teacher, receptionist, business teacher, physics teacher, Health PE coach, counselor, and assistant principal

He was able to knock off a couple of those things quickly as Andrew Sellers was hired as the assistant principal He comes from Melissa and has experience as an assistant principal and a principal in Anna He has also hired a counselor, but since it's not official, that person will be announced at a later time

Kempson's wife Kelly is a counselor at Denison ISD and will remain there They have two girls that will enter the seventh and fourth grade No word as to whether they will transfer as one can imagine the difficult times young ladies can have with moving away from friends Although dad has brought up the idea and is "slow-pedaling" the subject after tears were shown

With a pile of things to do in his first couple of days, Kempson is still trying to be accessible, visible, and trying to meet everyone he can

"I've got some goals set for the next few weeks to try and shore up a few things," said Kempson "Once you get into June, teachers don't want to move They have a hard time picking up and moving The later you get, the candidates shrink "

Kempson says he's already felt comfortable and welcomed here and feel it's part of God's plan for his life

"I was very nervous and excited at the same time and then sad about leaving my other job," said Kempson "But once I got here, I felt like 'okay this is where I'm supposed to be.'"

Rain fell from the sky by the buckets on Wednesday afternoon

On three separate occasions, bursts of flash flooding hit the area during a stretch of an hour or so from 4 pm to 5 pm The rain caused the low areas to fill up with water crossing the roadways Eventually the water washed to Howe's main creek alongside the west side of US Highway 75

One of the worst hit areas was Dollar General on L B Kirby

Avenue The parking lot was a swimming pool as some described it