After being with district for more than 2 decades,
John Cowling now takes on role of principal

By Gabe Stark
Trenton Telegraph

Last week, the Trenton Telegraph met with the new principal at Trenton High School, John Cowling. While Cowling is new to the head principal role in the building, he is no stranger to education, having served previously as an assistant principal, athletic director and teacher. Here, he discusses his background and what his plans are for leading the school.

If you could introduce yourself to Trenton in any way, how would you introduce yourself?
“That’s an interesting question. I’m John Cowling. This is my 27th year in education. It’s my 21st year at Trenton. I’ve spent all but three of those years at the high school. I have my wife, Linda, that I’ve been married to for 21 years. We have four children: Isaiah, who is married to Sydney. They live in Lincoln, Nebraska. As well as Nate, Gabe and Eliana. They are … 20, 23, 26 and 29 years old. So, all our kids are adults now.

“I grew up in southern Iowa, in a town that was basically the size of Trenton. So, I’m familiar with this size of school, this size of town. And it’s where I’ve basically, lived my entire life.”

So how did you get from a small town in Iowa to Trenton, Missouri?
“I graduated from Northwest Missouri State in 1999. And that spring, I was applying for teaching jobs. North Harrison called me in Eagleville and offered me a job, so I worked there for three years. Then, I moved to Princeton in the fall of 2002, and that’s where I met my wife, and it’s just kind of gone from there.”

Did you get an education in teaching at Northwest? And how did you get started on the path towards being an educator?
“Well, I probably went about it the wrong way, but being, you know, 20, 21 years old, I was bullheaded and I wanted to go into coaching. So, the natural progression into coaching was to be a teacher. … It was a math degree that I wanted, I liked it, but then I hit a class that just didn’t seem like math anymore so I switched to social studies, and that’s what I taught when I got here.

“I started in credit recovery, but then my third year here, I moved to eighth-grade math and then to algebra 1 and I really liked math a lot better. I think I became a better teacher when I taught math because there aren’t any movies that you’re going to show for math classes. And I would show the occasional movie in my history class. So I think I became a better teacher then.”

What is your favorite memory from when you were a teacher?
“Just getting to know the kids, that’s what we do it for. Just being around the students and all the funny things they would do, all the good things they would do as well as all the dumb things they would do.
Just being a part of the school community has been a blast. A lot of my memories are of coaching; we’ve had some very good teams that I’ve been fortunate to be a part of here at Trenton High School.

“Those are a lot of my memories; they shouldn’t be, but in the classroom, we would have good times too. It’s just that it’s easier to have better memories of your sporting teams.”

You were the vice principal and athletic director, and now you’re the principal. How did that transition start, and was that position something that you wanted?
“No, and if you ask the people who I have worked with for a very long time, even when this job came open three years ago, they would have told you that I didn’t want it. At the time, I felt like I was just starting to learn my craft as an assistant principal and athletic director and I didn’t want to change jobs at that time.
And really, when I started with Casey Bailey four years ago, and he was the principal and I was the assistant, I thought that we were going to spend my remaining years doing those jobs together.

“But over the last two, three years, I’ve just grown into wanting to be the leader of the school and provide a good culture for our teachers and students to have success. And that’s really what motivates me, is to make this a place where everybody can feel like it’s home.”

What would you say are your three biggest goals for Trenton High School as the principal?
“It’s to provide a culture where we celebrate our successes, whether it’s the FFA program being honored Saturday night for being the Trenton Chamber of Commerce organization of the year, whether it’s our academic success, whether it’s our athletic success, whether it’s band and choir, all of our extracurriculars. I want our kids who do well, to have a light shining on them.

“… Again, that’s what I want, I want our kids to be celebrated. I want our teachers to be celebrated.
Also, I want to raise our test scores; our EOC scores can be better, but you also can’t focus on that. That can’t be your entire focus because we’re here to, like our vision statement says, create capable, contributing and caring students for the future. That’s what I want out of our kids: to become people who, when they go out into the workforce after they leave their four years here or go on to college, people can identify them as Trenton graduates. And that’s a great thing.”

Cowling said he also wants to create a safe environment.
“Kids aren’t going to learn well if they are not comfortable. And that goes back to the first goal, but I want it to be a place where everybody feels like they are at home when they come here.”

What is one piece of advice that you could give people to avoid making a mistake that you’ve made?
“I’ve been incredibly fortunate in the choices that I’ve made in my career. So, I don’t know that, I mean, looking back now, I don’t know that there was a big mistake that I’ve made in my career. Knock on wood, I mean, it could still happen, but how would I avoid big mistakes? Make sure you surround yourself with good people. Make sure you listen to and learn from the people who are both good and bad at their jobs. You can take a lot from someone who doesn’t do their job well, just as much as you can take from someone who does do their job well.

“I’ve been fortunate to work with some incredible leaders in the school district and I
really think that over the years, they’ve helped shape me into the person that I am today.”

What is one thing you’d like the community to know about you and what you’re doing at Trenton?
“I think it’s probably what the teachers and coaches here have known for the last five or six years, that I’m going to do what I think is best, not only for our students, but for the teachers and coaches as well. I’m also going to work hard. They are always going to be able to rely on me.

They’re going to know that they can come to me with anything. And the people, our parents in the community, can do the same thing; if their students are having an issue, they can come here. And we can talk about it and figure out a way forward with what is going to help their kid become the best Bulldog that they can be.”