Fort Collins High School will have new principal next fall for 3rd time in 5 years

Kelly Lyell, Fort Collins Coloradoan
·2 min read
Penny Stires is stepping down at the end of the school yeaar after just 1 1/2 years as principal at Fort Collins High School for family reasons, she told staff and families. Stires, pictured here in 2021 while principal at Lincoln Middle School, was the school's second principal since Mark Eversole retired following the 2018-19 school year.
Penny Stires is stepping down at the end of the school yeaar after just 1 1/2 years as principal at Fort Collins High School for family reasons, she told staff and families. Stires, pictured here in 2021 while principal at Lincoln Middle School, was the school's second principal since Mark Eversole retired following the 2018-19 school year.

Fort Collins High School will have a new principal for the third time in five years next fall.

Penny Stires, hired as the school’s “permanent principal” March 22, 2022, after serving in an interim role the previous two months, is resigning at the end of the current school year to return to her home state of Ohio, she said in a letter sent to Fort Collins High staff and families May 3 and shared Monday by Poudre School District with the Coloradoan.

The mother of Stires’ husband has cancer, and “he is longing to be with her for any remaining time they can share together,” she wrote. “It was a very difficult decision to make.”

Stires took over as interim principal at Fort Collins High in January 2022 after Tam Smith was removed from the position and reassigned to an administrative position within PSD for reasons that were not disclosed “out of respect for his privacy,” a district spokesperson said at the time.

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Smith had only been principal since the start of the 2019-2020 school year, when he replaced Mark Eversole, who retired.

PSD posted the opening for a new principal on its website and “is working through the hiring process for the next principal and will include a staff and family voice,” a spokesperson said Monday.

Stires has more than 30 years of experience in education and previously served as principal at PSD’s Boltz Middle School from 2010-15 and Lincoln Middle School from 2015 until moving over to Fort Collins High in early 2022.

“Leading Fort Collins High School was supposed to be the end game for me professionally,” Stires wrote in her letter to staff and families. “Life is full of surprises that challenge us and inspire us at the same time. The staff at FCHS is nothing short of incredible. The dedication they have to the school community is unmatched. I’ve been so proud to be a part of something so special — even for a short amount of time.”

Reporter Kelly Lyell covers education, breaking news, some sports and other topics of interest for the Coloradoan. Contact him at kellylyell@coloradoan.com, twitter.com/KellyLyell or facebook.com/KellyLyell.news. 

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Fort Collins High will have new principal for 3rd time in 5 years