Lompoc High’s Astounding Assistant Principal

Mr. Arrigoni is the assistant principal at LHS. He is originally from Chicago, Illinois and has expressed that the reason he had come to Lompoc was because he heard the LUSD was a great district to work in, as well as Lompoc High having an amazing football team! His favorite part about working at Lompoc High is, “…working with the students, staff, and families”.  

In an interview I asked Mr. A how is he dealing with the new changes that have been made, in terms of Covid, from the beginning to now. He replied, “The hardest part of Covid is that it has made it harder to socialize and we cannot have a lot of the fun events that we normally have on a high school campus. I think we did a great job preparing the campus to keep everyone safe, but I am looking forward to a normal school year.” 

Mr. Arrigoni was most inspired to work as an educator because he was the first person in his family to go to college and wasn’t certain about what he wanted to do with his life, right away. He never really liked school while he was enrolled as a student. But, that changed after getting the chance to tutor high school students during college. He then became really interested in education and officially decided he wanted to work in the education field to contribute to creating a good experience for students. 

I had asked if he had always wanted to be an administrator and he responded, “I did not always want to be an administrator. I had a principal ask me, during a teacher interview, about my career plan. I told him I wanted to be a teacher. I taught at a middle school, high school, and community day school. I have taught mostly special education classes. I thought by going into administration I would be able to have more of an impact on the school and make education better for students.” Mr. Arrigoni chose the bigger picture for his future and his students. 

As many of you know, for over a year now the entire globe has endured a virus called the CoronaVirus. It has affected everyone and everything, especially the learning environment for students, also being the teaching environment for teachers. Therefore, I asked Mr. Arrigoni how he incorporated social emotional learning with his students. He said, “When working with students, I rely on the training I have attended, including restorative justice training. I am always calm and I treat all students with respect. I assume that everyone I work with is doing the best they can and that everyone wants to be treated with dignity and respect”.

Finally I asked if there was anything he was looking forward to for next year. He enthusiastically responded,  “…going back to normal lives and not using a mask!”. From the interview I had the pleasure of conducting with our Assistant Principal, it’s very noticeable that he is in this position now with the best interest for his students, he truly cares and wants the best for all!