A class of his own: Folsom's Cadenhead ready for another school year

Editor's note: As area schools begin to reopen for the upcoming school year next week,, the Folsom Telegraph's Our Town series will introduce the community to some of its educational leaders, some who have long been serving the community and others that are new faces for 2021-22. This series opens with Folsom HIgh School Principal and local residentl Howard Cadenhead. Howard Cadenhead has been the Folsom High School principal for the past six years and he is geared up and ready for another to begin next week. Before coming to Folsom High School, Cadenhead was a teacher at El Camino High School in Sacramento. There he taught multi-level English courses, technology courses, business courses and was a sports coach. "El Camino was a great school and a great environment," Cadenhead said, "However, after 15 years, I decided at some point that I wanted a larger scope because I enjoyed doing a lot of things. I like to be involved with all different facets of high school. In administration, you get to be involved and support everything a school has to offer." Cadenhead began applying for administration jobs in the Sacramento area. He first moved to Rio Americano High School to be an assistant principal and was soon bumped to be the interim principal at Arden Middle School for a year. He then moved to San Juan High School to be assistant principal. "Shortly after becoming the assistant principal at San Juan High School, my family and I decided to move to Folsom and in 2014, I applied for an assistant principal job at Folsom High School," he said. "From there in 2015 when Mrs. Allaman moved on to the district office, I applied for the principal job and have been here ever since." Last year, Cadenhead picked up extra responsibilities by becoming principal of Folsom Lake High School, which is alongside Folsom High School. Folsom Lake High School moved its campus last year to the Folsom High School campus portables. "They have the same bell schedule. They can play our sports and join our clubs," he said. "They just have less A-G classes and is more for students thinking about entering a trade school after high school or going straight into the workforce." However, this transition happened last fall when all students were still online, due to the pandemic. Whether it was Cadenhead's Folsom High students or Folsom Lake High students, everyone was required to work from home from March 2020 until now. "The pandemic shifted the way that we worked and communicated with everyone. Everything we did became a little more challenging because it was all online," Cadenhead said. "We had to be creative to maintain connections." While the school opened up in March 2021, only a small number of students were allowed back to campus. However, starting in August, every faculty member and student will be welcomed back on campus. Folsom High School plans to reopen as much as they are allowed. School starts on Aug. 11 and more guidelines from the California Department of Public Health are expected on what will be allowed once students return. Cadenhead hopes that they will be able to resume all normal activities once school starts. "I am very excited," Cadenhead said. "It was hard to serve a community that you don't get to see. The fact that we're going to be back on campus is so exciting to me."