The Career Center of Southern Illinois will soon be saying goodbye to its principal, who will be stepping away after four years as he begins a new chapter in his career at Red Bud Elementary School.

CCSI Principal and Assistant Director Mitch North has spent many years in both faculty and administrative roles in education. Originally from Sparta, he graduated from Southeast Missouri State University in December 2005 with degrees in secondary education and social studies.

From there, he began his career at an alternative education school in Centralia for two years before headed back home to work at Sparta High School for five years.

He then took his first big step into administration, serving as assistant principal at Sparta Lincoln School – a pre-K through eighth grade building like Red Bud Elementary. After working there for two years, he served as athletic director at Waterloo High School for four years prior to landing in his latest position with CCSI.

North joked that he comes from a “stereotypical teaching family,” with his dad serving as a long-time social studies teacher and coach and his mother working as a teacher and then school counselor.

His uncle, aunt, cousins and younger brother also teach, as does his wife who works as a first grade teacher at Red Bud Elementary.

While he was understandably drawn to education through his family, North gave particular credit to his father as he was able to witness first-hand the impact that a teacher could have through his family.

“I think I just have always liked learning,” North said. “I think it was just seeing the impact. My dad, for example… he was my teacher in high school and coached me a couple of different times. To me, he was Dad, but I saw the impact that he had on a lot of other people. I was kind of drawn to that. The ability to change the direction of someone’s life or help them find the right direction for them has always been really important to me.”

North also spoke about how he wound up as CCSI principal, with the Waterloo AD role not being as student-involved as he wanted.

He also had a distinct interest in alternative education given the start of his teaching career. CCSI’s alternative high school program – including its vocational courses such as auto collision, child care, welding and health occupations – was a big draw.

“Having started my career in alternative education, it was always something that I really believed in the mission of it,” North said. “In a lot of ways, it just felt like a natural fit for me at that point in time.”

He further emphasized how much he values alternative education, noting that students of all kinds ought to be able to learn in an environment that’s best for them.

“Obviously, I’m a teacher and a principal,” North said. “I have a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree. But I’ve also spent a lot of time around kids, and I know that college is not for all of them. As much as I loved college and as much as I value that experience for me, I did always kind of understand that that wasn’t necessarily the case for everyone.”

North spoke rather fondly of his time at CCSI over the past few years. Regarding the COVID-19 pandemic which has continued to affect students since 2020, he voiced his satisfaction at the school being able to help a lot of people still be successful through it all.

He also discussed the relationships that he’s been able to make at CCSI, particularly the bonds and the memories he’s made with the students he’s worked with.

North said that, with each graduating class being so small, he’s strived to make each graduation ceremony a bit more personal than a traditional high school is able to.

“I write just a little thing up for each student,” North said. “That’s one of the perks of when you’re only graduating 10-25 or so at a time, you get to spend a little bit more time on the graduate… I spend a lot of time, and I write up a little review of that student’s time or tell some stories, share some personal connections and challenges they’ve overcome. It’s been a really meaningful thing for me, and I knew the kids liked it because I start hearing as we’re getting close to graduation, ‘What are you gonna say about me?’”

On his upcoming position as principal at Red Bud Elementary, North said he wasn’t actively seeking a new job, but his several connections in Red Bud helped pull him toward a change in his career.

He noted that, along with his wife who has taught in the district for 14 years, he is close with the principal of Red Bud High School, and the previous principal of Sparta Lincoln during his tenure there also now works at the elementary school.

North also spoke about the generally high-quality faculty at Red Bud Elementary that seem to make it an excellent school for an incoming administrator.

“I know there’s a lot of really great and strong teachers there, and it just seemed like a really good opportunity to make a change to something different and to go into a place that is already stacked with excellent people and making good progress on their goals and everything,” North said.

Even as he looks toward his own future in Red Bud, North expressed his hopes for the future of CCSI.

He described the progress that the school has made over the years in building up its programs, further commending his colleagues for their work.

He said that one of the biggest challenges currently facing CCSI is the building itself, and though the school and its program are headed in the right direction, he hopes that the institution will soon be able to find a new facility that can better meet its needs for years to come.

“My biggest hope for the future of this place is that it can find a new home,” North said. “We’ve been here for over 50 years now, and I would love to see CCSI doing alternative and vocational education for students in this area for another 50 years, but there’s going to need to be some infrastructure improvements if that’s going to happen. And I think that this school and the program in general is headed in the right direction to make that happen.”