New principal Dr. Allison Harley knows that Krop has a tradition of excellence and is aware of how well the Dawn Baglos administration upheld that tradition. But despite that, Harley is excited to preserve Krop’s excellence through her own brand of education.

In order to understand who Harley is as an administrator and educator, one must be familiar her background.

“I’ve been working for Miami-Dade County since I was five,” Harley said. While child labor laws may make that seem unfeasible, Harley began her career in the Miami-Dade County school district as a Kindergarten student and has since been a teacher and administrator at schools throughout the county.

Harley became acquainted with Krop when it first opened in 1998 while she was an assistant principal at one of its feeder schools, Highland Oaks Middle School. Harley admitted that she was intimidated by the high quality of education that Krop established in its infancy.

Before coming to Krop, Harley was the principal of a successful Miami Palmetto High School. One factor that contributed to Harley’s decision to leave was the location of Krop.

Krop belongs to the North Region of Miami-Dade County, and throughout her career, Harley has done a lot of administrative work in the region. Harley has been pleased with how the north region is run.

Harley also lives in Broward and the shortened commute enables her to live a happier lifestyle. “I have a life out of school,” she said, “and I don’t enjoy spending my life driving back and forth from school. It reflects in my mood at work.”

But Harley said she wouldn’t have come to the north region for any school. No, to Harley, Krop is a special school. As a longtime friend of former Krop principal Dawn Baglos, Harley has been well prepared for her new job. But make no mistake, Harley is her own person and has not let Baglos’s experiences, opinions and administrative style influence the type of principal Harley will be at Krop.

“I’m not [Baglos], and I can’t be her,” Harley said. “I can only approach this job my way.” Harley doesn’t believe that this will have a positive or negative impact on the way the school is run, but it will be different than before.

Seniors will now be able to wear a class shirt, a tradition Harley is bringing over from her old school. The shirt will be blue, the senior class color, and Harley hopes it will give students pride to be a part of something even if they aren’t in a club or on a team.

While Harley is making some changes, she views her new job as a maintenance project.

“When you come to a school like Krop, there’s not much to fix,” Harley said. “You can only hope to preserve a level of excellence.”

Harley hopes to move some of the focus away from testing. “There is too much focus on academics and passing the test,” Harley said. She understands that testing and academics are an important part of school, but believes that the amount of testing is a problem and that molding students into respectable adults is her utmost priority.

“When [students] leave Krop, I want to be happy with how they’ve grown as human beings,” Harley said.