Penny Stires named permanent principal of Fort Collins High School after Tam Smith removed

Penny Stires will officially continue as Fort Collins High School’s principal through the 2022-23 school year after temporarily taking over the role earlier this year.

Stires was named the interim principal in January, following the removal of former principal Tam Smith and became the school’s permanent principal on Tuesday. She is the high school’s first female principal, according to a district announcement. 

Stires has been with PSD since 2010. Before being named interim principal of FCHS, she served as the principal of Lincoln Middle School since 2015. Before her time at Lincoln, Stires was the principal of Boltz Middle School. 

"I have such gratitude to serve the Fort Collins High School community as the first female principal,” said Stires in the PSD news release. “I understand how important this work is and my desire is to do all I can for the benefit of students, staff and families.”

Assistant Superintendent of Secondary Schools Scott Nielsen called Stires an empathetic and “visionary leader.”

"She leads through learning and adapts to new trends,” Nielsen said in the release.

"Stires ensures that her staff, students and families feel motivated and inspired to show up every day."

Poudre School District officials did not give a reason for removing Smith from the position in January, though they did note "there is no criminal investigation related to this announcement” when informing families of Smith’s departure. 

Smith shifted to a position in the operations department.

What’s Smith doing now? 

Smith's new title is "Operations Special Assignment," according to district spokesperson Alex Ballou, and his responsibilities are in facility maintenance, data collection and assisting with facility inventory. 

In late January, the Coloradoan requested a copy of Smith’s contract for his new role to see his new salary information and was told there was no such contract and the department did not plan to issue one. 

In his last year at FCHS, Smith was set to receive a salary of $135,455, according to contracts received by the Coloradoan through a public records request. When he began as principal of the school in 2019 his contract was for $132,500. 

Smith did not respond to a request for comment from the Coloradoan earlier in the year. 

Molly Bohannon covers education for the Coloradoan. Follow her on Twitter @molboha or contact her at mbohannon@coloradoan.com. Support her work and that of other Coloradoan journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.