At Woodland Middle School in Brentwood, Tenn., Assistant Principal William Toungette has expanded student mental health supports and mentored a new generation of school leaders.
On April 17, 2026, in Washington, Toungette was named the 2026 National Assistant Principal of the Year award alongside a winner for the high school level. Both were recognized for strengthening school culture and advancing approaches to student behavior and mental health, according to the National Association of Secondary School Principals, which organized the awards.
Toungette was recognized for fostering “collaboration among teachers, strengthening student support systems, and guiding countless families through the challenges of middle school,” according to the press release by NASSP.
Education Week spoke with Toungette shortly after his win.
“It was very surreal to be in a room with such greatness, and to be named the middle school assistant principal of the year was a very humbling experience,” he said.
The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
You’ve been in the assistant principal for over 30 years. How has the job changed?
I’m finishing my 36th year, so I’ve been in the game for a while, but every day is a different day, a new day. [But] getting to deal with children every day is just a joy.
The biggest difference that we’ve experienced has been the onset of technology, particularly cellphones and artificial intelligence. That’s the biggest thing that I can kind of think back to over the last 15 to 20 years.
What challenges do you expect to face in the next year?
We have a lot of students with some social-emotional learning issues who come into school. We work very closely with our counseling team, and we do a needs assessment for our students. Then we build our counseling services around those needs. We’re always looking to support our kids.
We’re seeing a real increase in anxiety and depression. Middle school is a tough age, and a lot of times we have kids that are transitioning really from childhood to adulthood during those years.
Our teachers do a great job if they build those relationships, and they know that a student is struggling or sees a change in the student, they’re very quick to report that to our counselors. Our counselors get right on it, and then we partner with the parents to make sure that we’re supporting the children.
What does mentorship look like to you?
I have a younger administrator in our building. I try to work very closely with him, on different things and try to pour into him and share any wisdom and experience that I have when he comes across things.
We have a district-wide mentorship program, and I’m very fortunate to be connected with great new [assistant principals], each year and try to support them and answer their questions, check in on them, send them little tokens of appreciation, and take care of them as best I can.
How has technology impacted your school?
We have an AI policy, and our teachers are able to check and make sure we’re very specific with the kids and communicating the expectations. We try to teach them about the appropriate ways to utilize AI, but we still have some kids who don’t use it properly. When they do [use AI properly], we address that, and we try to use that as a learning opportunity for them.
Our teachers are very specific in their instructions about what can and can’t be used, from citing sources and copying and pasting off the internet that doesn’t really involve AI.
What do teachers at your school need most right now?
They need more time. There’s never enough time. Time is a finite commodity; we only have so much of it, but we try to provide them with time to work together.
We have some set aside, dedicated, planned time for each of our curriculum teams, and that’s been working really well.
I wish that we could take something off their plate so they could have more time to plan. We are working on that with our schedule, but it’s a tough situation.
What’s one change you’ve made to improve student belonging?
We have a period every day that is called our “Warrior Period”, and it is what we call an adult recess.
Kids get to choose from a menu [through] an app on their Chromebooks. Their activities run the gamut of what’s out there, anything from a walk in the park to 3-on-3 basketball, to extra study time, to quiet time, or just hanging out with friends. That’s been really good to build community.
It’s a brain break for kids. Every year, we have to evaluate it to see if we’re going to continue it because that piece of time and instructional time is so critical, and we’re always looking for ways to maximize our instructional time.
What’s something people don’t fully understand about your role?
Most people don’t understand how much time that it takes and how much of an emotional toll it takes when a kid makes a mistake. In addition, how you really hurt when a kid has made a serious mistake and there’s a serious consequence that’s going to impact them greatly.
Most people don’t understand that we do truly love and care about the kids, and we’re not just there to issue consequences.
Is there anything else you want to share?
This [award ceremony] is a great experience—to be with so many great educators and talented folks who have given their lives to children.
It’s empowering and encouraging, and even for somebody that’s been in the game for a long time, it’s made me re-energized—I may go 10 more years, who knows.
