Keven Wynkoop, in the midst of his first school year as principal of Ballard High School, tells a story about his grandfather, a lifelong Ballardite, that sums up the way he feels about the neighborhood.

"I'd be willing to live anywhere," Wynkoop said his grandfather would say. "All the way to 65th or up to 15th."

Wynkoop, a lifelong Ballard resident himself and a third-generation graduate of Ballard High School, introduced himself to the community during the Oct. 13 Ballard District Council meeting. He replaced former Ballard High School principal Phil Brockman, who left after last year for a new position with Seattle Public Schools.

The first teaching job Wynkoop took was at Ballard High School in 1999. Since that time he has risen up the ranks while never once considering taking a job anywhere other than the community he grew up in. When he was promoted from assistant principal to principal, it was the realization of a goal, he said.

"There's no higher office for me," Wynkoop said. "My family thinks I've reached the top.

He said he sees himself as a leader in a new, vibrant Ballard community, one that has ties to the past but keeps looking forward.

"For all the changes we've gone through in my lifetime, I think we're just going to keep getting better and better," he said.

Wynkoop said he believes the students of Ballard High School will be the ones to keep the spirit and legacy of the neighborhood going.

Despite popular opinion, students today work harder and have more demands on them, especially to get into college, than past generations, he said. Ballard students have an amazing sense of community and give a lot back through service hours, he said.

"Kids," Wnkoop said. "They're not as bad as you hear."

He said one of the most rewarding aspects of his job is working with freshmen and seeing students who are excited to come through Ballard High School.

Ballard, with it's 1,600 students, can be an imposing place for a 14-year-old coming from a small school like Salmon Bay, Wynkoop said. He said he encourages new students to get involved, to find their community within the larger community.

"We know that students involved at Ballard High School do better at Ballard High School," he said.

Wynkoop said Ballard High School is facing problems and challenges like any other school right now. But, thanks to amazing support groups throughout the community – from alumni to the PTSA to the Ballard High School Foundation, which has raised more than $2 million for the school in its 15 years – it will be able to overcome them.