Although the school year is starting to wind down, and many students are lining up their summer jobs and vacation plans, one local school administrator is just gearing up for what he hopes will be a long successful academic journey.

Joseph Gunnels started his tenure as principal at Panther Valley High School in February and was introduced to the school board at its March meeting. In the short time that he has been at the helm, he already sees great things in store for Panther Valley's future.Gunnels considers himself a "data guy.""Since I got here, I've been pouring through the student data, the test results, the diagnostics," he explains. "I've been working closely with the departments and the PSSA coaches and we've been moving the kids significantly. Our preliminary feedback is very positive."Without a doubt, Gunnels has his work cut out for him. The district needs to get the high school out of its corrective action status immediately. However, one of the reasons that he was so interested in taking the principalship was just that challenge.Education is a second career for Gunnels, who previously worked in industry, including 12 years with UPS. During that time, he also coached in various community youth sport leagues."Parents would always say to me, you should teach," he said. "That was true."He obtained his teaching certification from East Stroudsburg University in 1992 and has spent the last 18 years working in just about every facet of education and teaching every grade from kindergarten through 12th. He taught for 11 years in the Bangor Area School District and then moved into his first administrative position as the assistant principal at the Pleasant Valley Intermediate School. After 20 months at Pleasant Valley, he returned to Bangor as the middle school principal.Gunnels was drawn to administration because of his desire to affect the "big picture.""As an administrator, you have more control of the resources," he said. "You can really affect the big picture." His last position with the Bangor School district was as the director of Instructional Support Services."Through an LRE audit, the program was placed in corrective action," he explained. Gunnels was brought in to get the program turned around."Within six months, we had it fixed and turned it into the most productive in the I.U. I see that same opportunity here," he added.Gunnels feels that the district is already on the right road."The greatest resource is always the human resource. We have very good human resources. We have the people that it will take to fix it," he said. Over time, he hopes that the district will be able to develop an academically rigorous program that will allow the Panther Valley students to continue on to their choice of schools and ultimately, compete in a global work environment. He cited several of the existing programs as already contributing to that success."The JROTC program has the potential to be one of the finest anywhere, and we are very proud of that," he said. He also noted that almost every student is already involved in some sort of extracurricular activity. He added that one of the programs that he hopes to rebuild is the music program."We have wonderful kids and people that I know are committed to rebuilding that program," he said. He is also an advocate for more inclusion and co-teaching of special education students. "We want to make modifications to their programs so that they can be successful in rigorous academic courses," he explained.Beyond the immediate fixes that Gunnels and his team are working on, he hopes to someday turn Panther Valley into a "high performing high school.""I want the community, the parents, and the students to know that their kids are being educated in a first rate high school," he said. Gunnels sees the small school as being the perfect place to raise the standards."We can set the bar high, and then that becomes the norm," he said.Outside of the academic world, Gunnels has been married to his wife Diane for 25 years. They have three children: Kelsey, Elizabeth, and Gregory. He is also a sports fan, rooting for his favorite teams, the Mets and the Jets."Originally, my family is from Queens, so I'm a New York fan," he said. Although he currently commutes over an hour each way, Gunnels isn't ruling out a possible relocation in the future."I really like it here. There is a real beauty here, it's unpretentious and very honest," he says.