SOAP LAKE - Jacob Bang was selected as the principal at Soap Lake Middle School-High School.

Bang will replace Rick Winters, who resigned to take a job out of state. Previously Bang was the K-12 principal in Harrington.

"Rick really sold me on this job," Bang said. Winter contacted him when the job came open, and Bang liked what he heard, he said. The school district has "some really great things going on there," he said.

"We're thrilled to be here," he said.

Bang was involved in eduction even before he received a degree, he said. "I actually drove school bus to pay my way through college."

He has a decade of experience in the classroom and school administration, he said, starting with four years in a high school English classroom in his native Arizona. He moved from teaching to a job as assistant principal, he said.

But his wife is a graduate of Okanogan High School, had family in Ephrata and wanted to come back to the Pacific Northwest, he said. So Bang took a job in Selah, then became principal in Harrington.

He said he wants to continue the initiatives already in place in Soap Lake, like the Avid program. (The Avid program provides academic support and preparation for kids who plan to attend college.) He wants to continue and possibly expand the school's "College in the High School" classes. Qualifying classes are taught at the high school, but can be used for college credit.

He's also got training in the new evaluation methods that will be used for teachers and principals, he said. Bang is a graduate of Northern Arizona University and received his master's degree from Arizona State University. Currently he's taking superintendent certification classes at Washington State University.