Even though secondary principal Jack Leighty’s contract didn’t begin until Aug. 1, he’s already been a presence in the Lisbon community. He attended many of Lisbon’s post season softball and baseball games and has been working with the new administrative team at the district to tackle a few of the issues ahead of this school year.
“For me, the most important thing in this position this first year is just building relationships,” Leighty said. “Be that with teachers or students or community members, building relationships is hugely a necessity.”
Leighty started his teaching career with an undergraduate degree from the Univers. He taught at Corwith-Wesley-LuVerne as a physical education teacher. Eventually, he taught at Anamosa School District as well. He received his certification as a special education teacher from Morningside University, a role he loved and taught for four years.
He went to Drake university to get his administrative degree, and overlapped in a few classes with current elementary principal Justin Brown while there. He served for a year as a dean of students and then applied for the Lisbon job.
He is the son of a physical education teacher and has spent a lot of time around gymnasiums and athletics growing up, and that shaped what careers he was looking for.
“Administration always seemed to be in my plans for the future,” Leighty said. “I started my career as a physical education teacher in a small district, and started coaching teams.”
Leighty said, as he’s gotten older and started raising a family, his priorities shifted.
“I was originally considering being an activities director, but as I’ve gotten more involved on the educational side of the buildings, I felt more of a call to be a principal instead,” he said. “That transition happened before I finished my time at Drake.”
Leighty said that he has always loved working in smaller school districts more than large ones. Anamosa is the largest district, before his one year stint at Linn-Mar, that he had ever worked at.
“I love the size of a district where you know not only all the seniors in a class, but all of the students and their families,” Leighty said. “That’s similar to the size of the district I grew up in.”
Leighty said he was drawn to the Lisbon job because of the amount of pride that small communities have in their schools and the chance to make a district a home.
“With two young daughters, we wanted them to be able to experience growing up in a district like Lisbon,” Leighty said. “This district has a great staff, great students and a great community, and I see my job as principal adapting to the needs of this district, not necessarily making big or sweeping changes, but building on to what has been accomplished in the past.”
Outside of his time as an administrator, he said he spends time with his family, including those young daughters. He also has a son who is attending Mount Mercy University to major in biology.
“He’s been a three-sport athlete, so a lot of our time was following his activities in high school,” Leighty said.
And since he was a long time coach and physical education teacher, Leighty loves sports and any sporting activities, growing up on fields and taking a lot of time with athletes.