New principal excited about future at SSAS

Sarasota School of Arts and Sciences has seen its fair share of change and excitement the past few months. The faculty and students moved into a new building, the Florida Department of Education ranked SSAS the No. 1 middle school in Sarasota.

And as of Feb. 1, longtime teacher and administrator Tara Tahmosh-Newell began her career as the school’s new principal.

Tahmosh, who joined SSAS in 2000 as an English teacher, is excited to be a part of the school’s transformation.

“Now that we’re settled in our new building, we can finally start to catch our breath,” Tahmosh said. “We were doing well even in our old building, so I’m excited to see where we’ll go from here.”

Before the new building was ready, classrooms were crowded, and many teachers shared rooms or had no permanent room at all.

“This is something everyone’s been anticipating for a long time,” said Tahmosh. “Teachers finally have their own space. For some of them, this is their first classroom.”

Although the coaches are still busing students to nearby parks for physical education, Tahmosh expects this problem to be resolved in July, when the school’s new gym is scheduled for completion.

Tahmosh said she will miss the amount of student interaction that she was afforded as a teacher, but she’s excited for the new challenges and opportunities she’ll face as principal. Rebuilding a sense of community in the new building is high on her list of goals.

With the construction complete, the school can return to hosting the assemblies and activities that were so popular among the students, such as Earth Day field trips and other field days. The teachers also see an opportunity to enjoy the new facilities.

“We finally have a teachers’ lounge,” Tahmosh said. “It seems like such a silly thing, but teachers can be really isolated in their rooms, and now there’s a place for everyone to interact.”