Pete Gaffney, the principal of Winter Springs High School, has worked here for seven years. Mr. Gaffney started off as a PE coach at Pinecrest Elementary School, and has previously worked as an assistant principal at Bear Lake, and Hamilton Elementary. Before coming to Winter Springs he worked as a principal at Keeth Elementary.
The biggest influence in Mr. Gaffney’s life that has helped to get him where he is, is his parents. He said, “My mom and dad from a very early age, raised me to be a good person and I’ve strived for that ever since I was very little. They have always encouraged me to be the best person I can be and now my wife has taken that over.”
Mr. Gaffney said the most important thing to him about his job is the interactions with the students, he stated that “I made a commitment to myself when I got hired as an administrator that I would never lose contact with students.” When asked what he wants each student to accomplish he said “I want every student to not only go to high school, but do high school.” When he says this he means get involved; whether it’s a club, activity, or an athletic program, he believes that the whole school will be better if everyone does this. Mr. Gaffney really tries to be the best person that he can be and always doing the right thing, even when the right thing is sometimes hard. He said he really lives by that.
Success is top on Mr. Gaffneys list and he shares an amazing way to achieve it, “One of my favorite words is integrity if you have integrity, it kind of defines everything because you’re going to make good decisions, you’re going to be a good person, a good human being, and you’re going to do things the right way and for the right reasons. So if I was to ever tell someone to follow something, have good integrity, and that way it encompasses everything that you do in life”. He also said one of the most beautiful things about his job is that every day he can go home and look in the mirror and say that he helped somebody whether it’s a teacher, student, staff member, or a committee.
Mr. Gaffney’s favorite quote he’d like to share is from the show Ted Lasso “Be curious, not judgmental”, what that basically means is there’s so many people in today’s world that are judgmental. They’re judgmental over you or someone else or something they see. they often don’t pause and ask questions first. So one of the things that he loves is for his team at Winter Springs to be curious first no matter the circumstances.
Lastly Mr. Gaffney said “I’m very appreciative to the Winter Springs High School students for coming to school every day with a smile on their face and just trying to do the right thing, because it’s fun to be around you guys. So I’d like to just say thank you to all you for being who you are and coming to school with a positive attitude and smiling and having fun. GO BEARS.”
