New Hanceville High School Principal Daniel Wakefield, left, speaks to the Cullman County School Board after his new position was approved during Monday's meeting.

Hanceville Middle School Principal Daniel Wakefield was named the new principal of Hanceville High School during Monday’s meeting of the Cullman County School Board.

Wakefield, who has spent the last three years as Hanceville Middle School’s principal, said he has been working in Hanceville’s schools as a teacher or administrator since 2003, and he is looking forward to getting started as the high school’s principal.

“I’m ready to go,” he said. “I’m ready to get started building a better Hanceville High School.”

Wakefield’s first official day in his new position will be on July 1, and he said he will soon get together with the school’s leadership team and staff members to get a good idea of some of HHS’s strengths and weaknesses and identify areas that need to be addressed.

“I definitely want input from the staff, and I’ll try to do what’s best for the kids,” he said.

Monday’s meeting was the last board meeting of the 2020-2021 school year, with the last day of school set for May 28, and Cullman County Schools Superintendent Shane Barnette thanked all of the teachers and administrators for the work they did over the past year to make sure students got the best educations possible.

“Many times throughout the year we were unsure if we would get to have as much face-to-face instruction as we had, and we were able to have more than a lot of schools systems were,” he said. “So we’re excited to get this school year wrapped up.”

The county’s high schools held their commencement ceremonies over the weekend, and were able to return to Wallace State Community College this year after having outdoor graduations in 2020, he said.

“We were really excited that we were able to hold these ceremonies again at Wallace State Community College, and we had many people come out and celebrate with their young people about graduation,” he said.

Board member Heath Allbright thanked Barnette and the rest of the system’s leadership team for their efforts in keeping students in the classroom as much as possible.

“I know it was very challenging, but I appreciate your staff’s hard work and your efforts to keep us in school,” he said.