Jeffrey Kajs was introduced as the new principal for the 2012-13 school year with unanimous approval by the Board of Trustees during Monday night’s meeting at the Bolin Center.

A large crowd of both students and faculty members were on hand for the announcement and gave Kajs and his family a standing ovation. Kajs will take over in July for Principal Brad Burns, who announced in March that he was leaving the position to take a job in the district’s student services department.

Kajs has been an educator for 17 years. He was previously an assistant principal at Lewisville High School for five years and is currently principal at Griffin Middle School in The Colony. Kajs said he had a lot of new ideas for the high school and planned to emphasize the use of technology.

“I believe we need to prepare our students for a world where they have no idea what’s out there,” Kajs said.

Concerning the construction of the new campus, Kajs stressed that the most important parts of LHS aren’t made with bricks and mortar.

“It doesn’t matter about the walls or the ceilings,” Kajs said. “What matters is the staff and the students that are there, because that’s where the learning happens.”

Among the faculty members in attendance, many of whom worked with Kajs when he was an assistant principal, social studies teacher Dan Moser said Kajs will lead with “positive morale” heading into a new building and a new era for the high school next fall.

“He’s a very fair and firm administrator that will help Lewisville High School a lot,” Moser said.

Students who attended the board meeting were also able to share their first impressions concerning the new principal.

“He looks super nice and I can’t wait to work with him,”  junior and Student Council member Sydney Del Carpio said. “In Student Council, we always have a connection with the principal, so I’m excited.”

Kajs said innovation and adaptation will be important to the future of the high school.

“We need to have new technology and and use as many innovative ways to learn as possible,” Kajs said. “There are opportunities that we don’t even know exist yet, and we have to explore every single one of those to be successful.”

In a statement from a district press release, Kajs emphasized how glad he was to return to his former school.

“I’ve always been a Fighting Farmer,” Kajs said. “I’m all about providing as many opportunities for the kids at LHS and in LHS feeder pattern as possible. I believe in our students, staff, teachers and community. I believe in the entire feeder system so much so that my family has elected to place our children in the LHS feeder system with the hopes that they will be Fighting Farmers one day.”