As Whitehall-Coplay School District’s students and staff prepare to go back to the classroom, two of the district’s familiar faces will be trading places.

Former Steckel Elementary Principal Glenn Noack and former Whitehall-Coplay Middle School Principal Peter Bugbee have swapped roles. Noack will return to the middle school, where he was a former math teacher and guidance counselor. Bugbee will be heading to Steckel after 13 years at the middle school.

Superintendent Dr. Lorie Hackett said the motivation behind the move was to ignite creative juices and share fresh ideas in both buildings. The change became official July 1, and Hackett confirmed the swap was a permanent move and not a short-term situation.

Noack’s career at Whitehall-Coplay School District began in 1991 as a middle school math teacher. After teaching math at both the middle school and high school levels, he drifted toward the administration side of education, becoming a seventh-grade counselor. He was named Steckel’s assistant principal in 2005 and assumed full principal duties a year later.

Looking back at his tenure at Steckel, Noack said he is surprised at how long it has lasted. All of his previous stints as a teacher and counselor lasted roughly four to five years. After 11 years as Steckel’s principal, Noack will have the unique opportunity of following many of his former elementary students up to the middle school level.

“It will be a greater challenge for sure,” Noack said. “Middle-schoolers are fun to be around. It will be fun, and I’m looking forward to it, but it’ll be a far greater challenge.”

Bugbee’s journey through the district began in 1995 as a high school German teacher. In 2002, he assumed the role of assistant principal at the high school before becoming the middle school principal a few years later.

This is the second time Bugbee has succeeded a long-tenured principal in the district. Robert Rothenberger’s tenure as middle school principal spanned three decades before his retirement in 2004.

“Coming from the high school to middle school, that was when Mr. Rothenberger retired,” Bugbee said. “So there I was replacing a storied principal, and I’m doing the same over here at Steckel.”

Both principals are looking forward to starting classes next week, and each acknowledged the framework their processor established.

“The phases of educational leadership are to move from good to great,” Bugbee said. “But if you have a place that’s great, where do you go from there? You want to make it epic if you can.”