Longfellow has undergone some changes behind the scenes as the pandemic lingers, and one of those has been the inclusion of Aidan Vigil (pronounced vee-hill) as one of the three Assistant Principals (APs) holding down the fort in the school building.

His responsibilities include the world languages department, the fine & practical arts department, the social studies department,  overseeing the after school activities program, and managing the custodial team.

As the grade 8 AP, Vigil isn’t looking to make any sweeping changes, but like the rest of the administrative team, he is dedicated to getting us through this year of remote schooling.

“My priority is to make the health of our whole school as engaging as possible for our students, especially because of this unique year with distance learning,” Vigil said.

He has definitely seen some success in this difficult year with a thriving after school program and stayed on top of a particularly challenging year for Longfellow’s custodians as they work to keep the school and classrooms safe and germ-free for our eventual return.   He is also proud of his work with the LMS Morning show, which had several hurdles to overcome before they finally started broadcasting to students in December.

“I’ve been working with the LMS news show to get that up and running,” he said. “It helps build a sense of normalcy and community to see things that we would typically see in physical school.”

Mr. Vigil hopes we all learn something from this experience with distance learning. For instance, he hopes that we will be more efficient with technology when we eventually return to school. He understands that it’s hard to keep up with school work over a computer screen. He wants students to set academic goals and work to achieve them with persistence. Mr. Vigil also is aware of how distance learning impacts students’ mental health and encourages anyone feeling like they are under too much stress to contact a teacher, staff member, or another trusted adult in their community.

Mr. Vigil came here from a position as an administrator at Mclean High School but also has a lot of experience in the classroom. He has taught social studies and U.S. History, Civics, and a little bit of reading. He graduated from university with a teaching license in secondary social studies and later got a master’s degree in special education from George Mason University. He taught for three years at Herndon Middle School and six years at Herndon High school. He also enjoys coaching sports like baseball, football, and soccer.

Vigil is proud to join the staff at Longfellow and hopes to support every student and teacher to help us get through these challenging times.