On March 24, Steven Singleton announced to the Raider community that he will be resigning from his position as principal. His last day will be April 11. Current Associate Principal, Travis Willard, will be taking over as interim principal for the rest of this school year.

We want a principal who will care about our students and will walk around with Raider pride both inside the school building and outside of it in their professional life.

Singleton’s Raider pride is unmatched. He started working at Randall in 2006, and his love for our community has only grown since then. For the past 20 years, he has come into this building wanting every child to feel seen and cared for. He does little things for us, like buying our lunch or giving us high-fives every morning in the halls, that have a big impact. It truly shows how deeply he cared for his students. Something that we appreciate as the journalism program is Singleton’s care for every program at Randall. His focus has never been just on sports, but also the fine arts and academics. He wants all of us to succeed and not just a particular group. He has been an outstanding figure in the Randall community, and we will miss him dearly.

Now that Singleton is leaving, Willard will be stepping in for the rest of the year. We believe that Willard is the best person to give this role as of right now. He has similar characteristics to Singleton and cares just as much about our students and success. He’s really good about knowing students’ names and making us feel welcomed every morning when we come to school. The situation itself is very sensitive, but Willard has done a great job being very respectful about the change and handling the transition with care. Even though he has a lot of pressure on him, we are excited to see what he will do with the rest of the year.

The elephant in the room for us is who will be the next principal. They will have some big shoes to fill, and we want them to be the best choice for our school. We understand that we can’t get a carbon copy of Singleton, but we want someone who will see this role as more than just a salary. Someone who wants to make connections with students and help us in any way we need. They also need to be very competitive. We’ve won the Lone Star Cup two years in a row and are hopefully going on a third. We need someone who wants to see Randall succeed and live up to its best potential.

We would like to thank Canyon ISD for choosing to form a committee of Randall community members to narrow down the candidates for a new principal. We hope they’ll keep our students’ best interests in mind and do what’s best for our school. The pressure is on.