Dr. J.C. Farr has stepped down from Tamalpais High School’s principal position and Liz Seabury has taken over for the remainder of the school year as of Feb. 17. Seabury said she plans to prioritize putting the voice of her students and other staff first, seek systems to give students more support, and provide Tam with an uplifting principal figure to finish out the school year. 

Seabury has been an educator for 28 years and has taught in many different fields of work. She was a teacher for 11 years before becoming a principal for another 11 years, in part at Archie Williams. Additionally, she worked as an assistant principal and a district coordinator..

The start of Seabury’s career began in the East Bay as a teacher. “I started my teaching in the East Bay. It was in San Ramon Valley,” Seabury said.

 This was only the beginning and shortly after that teaching job, she and eight others opened a school of their own. 

“Soon after, I actually opened up my own high school in Santa Cruz. There were seven teachers and two administrators and it was called Scotts Valley High School,” she continued. 

“After that I moved to San Jose where I was a teacher and an administrator for 10 years,” Seabury said. “Me and my husband wanted to do something new so we looked for jobs in Santa Cruz and we looked for jobs here … that’s when I landed the job as the [Archie Williams High School] principal,” Seabury finished.

With such a broad range of experience, Seabury has decided to put her name in the hat for the position of full time principal here at Tam. 

“The actual position for principal is opening so the district will do interviews at the end of this month,” Seabury said. “I am planning on applying so if I get the real job then I’ll start focusing on making changes.”

When someone new comes to charge the question most of us will be asking is what will change and what will stay the same? Seabury expressed that she isn’t working on making any drastic changes and plans to just see where she fits best for the small time she’s here. 

“She knows that Tam is different then Archie and her mindset right now is just to fill our needs the best,” Counselor Tyrone Robinson said. 

Seabury has an uplifting personality and approaches her current position at Tam with an open mind, putting an emphasis on hearing everyone’s voice. 

“I see a lot of relationships within departments between teachers and even student-teachers,” Robinson said. “You really want the whole school to unify and get traction that way and I think she’s more than ready to do that. She’s been doing that and I can’t wait to see how it fits into Tam.”

The other administration members are excited to welcome Seabury for the next coming months and she’s already left a positive impression. “I’ve only had the privilege of working with Ms. Seabury a couple of times, but it seems her experience and credentials are a welcome addition to the team,” Assistant Principal Tara Ranzy said. 

Seabury said she plans to keep moving forward with valued aspects of Tam. 

“I have a huge thing about voice. I really want to hear from everybody in the room,” Seabury said. “My mantra is making sure everyone feels like they are part of the process. We don’t always like where we end up, but at least we all talked about it.”