BOUNTIFUL—Travis Lund is coming home. Currently the principal at South Davis Junior High, Lund will become the new principal at Viewmont High in the fall.

“I live in Centerville,” he said. “So it will be fun to be so close.”

Lund got his start as a coach at Northridge High in 2001. “While I was in college I started coaching the football team there then a position opened up as the boys track coach. Then I was lucky enough to get a teaching position. I taught English, PE and Drivers Ed for 13 years. I was able to do some great things there.”

He became the assistant principal at Woods Cross High in 2014, then three years ago principal at South Davis. “It was fun to move up the road to the feeder school,” said Lund. “Now I’ll be at Viewmont.”

Originally Lund said he was looking at going into law. “But as I started coaching and saw the students succeed and the impact on the community and school it was just a unique and amazing thing to see that progress. It solidified that I wanted to be a part of education.”

Switching to high school from junior high will be a change, he said. “The age of the students impacts a lot. There’s so much they’re figuring out across the board mentally and socially. I’m grateful for this experience. It’s always good to be ‘the’ principal. I have a tremendous advantage knowing where they’ve been and how to help them get there the next three years.”

High school kids are emerging teens to adults, said Lund. “They have more self-advocacy knowing where to get help in finding a career. The stakes are higher in academics, activities and socially.”

He hopes to work together with the junior high and high schools to offer programs that will help students to be successful. “I have an eye between 7 – 12 to make things align and find ways to make the transition smooth.”

Lund has already been meeting with staff members at Viewmont. “The key for anybody going in is to listen,” he said. “Get feedback and ask questions. I want to meet with the student body officers and create a student focus group. I plan to meet with the community council and PTA, all the key stakeholders to see where people are at and communicate our vision and put an action plan in place.”

He said it’s great knowing Viewmont is the school where his own children will go someday. “It gives me a deeper level of investment to impact directly the place my kids will go to. As I work with the community and staff I can ask myself, ‘what have I done to make this school better?’ It gives me more empathy for other people to say ‘my students will be coming there too.’ It’s a greater level of investment.”