LANGLEY — Robert Prosch, newly-named principal of South Whidbey High School, made his daughter a promise he plans to keep.

Larissa Prosch is a senior at Nooksack Valley High School, where her father spent the last five years as principal. Prosch told her if he got the job in Langley, she could graduate with her classmates.

It will mean a four-hour round-trip commute during the school year from Everson (15 miles east of Lynden), but Prosch believes such promises should be kept.

“The rest of the family — my wife Beth and four school-age daughters — will move down to South Whidbey next year,” he said.

“For me, the move is a chance to take all the things I’ve learned and apply them in a new situation. My family is excited to return to the island,” he said.

Prosch earlier served as assistant principal for three years at Oak Harbor High School.

Before he began teaching, Prosch was an opera singer, performing in over 50 performances in Utah. He sang in productions as varied as Puccini’s La Bohème and Verdi’s Macbeth.

“I enjoy singing, but a growing family dictated I move in another direction,” he said.

In 1994, he graduated from Brigham Young University with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music.

He received a master’s degree in education from Brigham Young and did post-graduate studies at the University of Washington.

For his first few years Prosch was a voice teacher and was heavily involved in the performing arts before becoming an administrative intern.

In 1999 he started at Oak Harbor, then moved to the principal spot at Nooksack Valley in 2002.

The job at South Whidbey opened when former principal Mike Johnson accepted a newly-created school district position involving curriculum instruction, special education, human resources and technology. Johnson served as principal for eight years.

Prosch strongly believes in using powerful teaching skills to help prepare students for college, career and citizenship in the community.

“Everyone — staff, parents and students — must create and maintain high expectations,” he said. The school’s structure must do all it can to support that goal, getting each young adult ready for success after high school.

Prosch subscribes to the concept that a high level of collaboration and communication is essential. “The staff should know the students so well that they can strategize the curriculum to meet their needs,” he said. “The students ‘own’ their learning while staff and parents provide the underlying element of integrity.”

Superintendent Fred McCarthy was pleased with the choice.

“I believe Rob is an especially good match for South Whidbey,” he said. “He has five years in a similar-sized school, has a great sense of humor, a good character and believes in balance of programming.”

“He’s the right man for this job,” McCarthy said.

Some parents have felt that the performing arts haven’t received their due at the high school; that’s now expected to change. Both the Whidbey Island Center for the Arts and music teacher Chris Harshman have already reached out to Prosch, with Harshman inviting him to join a local choral group.

Prosch is also big on sports.

“I’m a huge basketball guy,” he said. “My son played football and he and Larissa were on the basketball teams.”

On Wednesday, he traveled to Western Washington University after hearing the Falcons were in a training camp.

“He seemed like a nice fellow,” Coach Henry Pope said. “I was impressed he made the effort to stop by and say hello to the team.”

The school board will vote to hire Prosch during their next meeting, 6:30 p.m. Thursday, July 26.

Jeff VanDerford can be reached at 221-5300 or jvanderford@southwhidbeyrecord.com.