Dr. Angie Codron is much more than just the Principal of Normal West High School. Through her aspirations of education and excellence, she is the former salutatorian of her graduating high school class, a former collegiate student athlete, an author, a business woman, a strong mother of two boys, a coach, and a natural-born leader.
Dr. Codron’s desire to lead started in her childhood and at Stillman Valley High School in Stillman Valley, IL.
“I did a lot of things that students do at small schools. I was in the band. I played the trumpet since about fifth grade. I also played a lot of different sports like volleyball, basketball, and track. We didn’t have softball. We didn’t have tennis. We didn’t have a lot of the sports that we have here at Normal West. But I probably would have played them if we did,” Dr. Codron noted.
In addition to sports and music, Dr. Codron was also a member of the Student Athlete Leaders Club and the Student Council, all while maintaining an almost-perfect GPA.
As far as how her life before West prepared her for her new role, Dr. Codron admits that her involvement in high school helped form some of the leadership skills she carries into her current professional life.
“We had an athletic leadership group that I was a part of that was kind of developing some handbook policies and athletic code policies about some things, so we did leadership things like that,” Dr. Codron explained.
Dr. Codron began her journey in the field of Education at Eastern Illinois University, where she studied Chemistry Education and graduated with her Bachelor’s Degree in 1999. While at EIU, Dr. Codron also played basketball. Because of basketball, she opted to continue her athletic and academic career at EIU where she received her Masters Degree in Athletic Administration, officially graduating in the spring of 2001.
Dr. Codron’s first teaching job post college was at St. Charles North High School. There, she taught chemistry from 2001-2002.
Not long after that, a position opened up at Tremont High School in Tremont, IL. While there, she taught many science classes as well as coached junior high and high school basketball from 2002-2004. Next, she taught at Pekin High School in Pekin, IL from 2004-2006.
Along with teaching and coaching, Dr. Codron also helped start American Driving School, a Driver’s Education Company. This venture helped Dr. Codron “learn a lot in that realm of things about business.”
After teaching at Pekin High School, Dr. Codron took a position here at Normal West High School in 2006.
Dr. Codron is in the midst of her 18th year at West and her 23rd year in education, overall. Here at West, she was hired as an Intro to Science/Chemistry teacher and became the Head Girls Basketball Coach in 2010 until about 2015 when she took on the role as Normal West High School Associate Principal.
Dr. Codron has loved and embraced being a part of the Normal West culture from the start.
“I remember 18 years ago walking into my classroom, and as a science teacher, you haul in all of your supplies, and you have all these kits, and you have all this fun stuff. So, I’m hauling all of that in, and I remember on the wall seeing a mission statement. It said: ‘Build Relationships, Accomplish Goals, Engage in Learning, Develop Citizenship.’ And I was like ‘Yeah, I want to do that. Like, if this place really does those things; this is the place for me,” Dr. Codron noted.
Although her recent move from Associate Principal to Principal has been mostly exciting and rewarding, Dr. Codron admits that she has made many adjustments already, and like with any job, Dr. Codron has welcomed challenges.
“My biggest challenge is to get people to see this view of the big picture of our school and our team,” she admitted. Her main aspiration is to get everyone on board with making decisions that benefit the school as a whole and to act on those issues proactively.
“I just want everybody to feel a part of what I first felt 18 years ago,” Dr. Codron said.
Despite knowing that taking on the role of Principal would come with new challenges, Dr. Codron’s love for Normal West inspired her to make a change. When she first came to West, she instantly felt a sense of community and togetherness. Her biggest aspiration as Principal is to make it possible for all students and staff to experience that same feeling in their time here.
To illustrate her quest to help all stakeholders experience her passion for West, Dr. Codron uses a triangle diagram, (as seen in the caption.)
“It’s kind of your job as Principal, so the more you move up and lead, the more you try to get people to see this side [the broad side of the triangle diagram, representing the whole of the student body and staff], and then you try to get people to see that side proactively,” Dr. Codron explained.
One exciting example of her ideas coming to life was the first half day on Tuesday, September 12. She especially noted the “soda-serving” incentive for students who had no tardies. “I was setting up the tables… [and] people were circling the tables to check and see if their names were on there. It felt like we cared about the right things and that was exciting,” she gushed.
It has been a journey for Dr. Codron to get to where she is today, but as the school year continues, there is one thing for certain: Angie Codron is the right leader for Normal Community West High School.
