For the 2016-17 school year, former assistant principal Lena Kortoshian moved up to be the principal after former principal Doug Dall retired, which brought Clark Magnet High School the current assistant principal, Armene Mkrtchian. After 20 years as an English teacher at Glendale High School, Mkrtchian took her first administrative job to “support student success socially, emotionally, and with extracurriculars.”

“I’m all about kids,” Mkrtchian said. “My entire career is with kids and they are my focus. I hope I can build great relationships with everyone and be the person they can come to for support.”

Before arriving at Clark, Mkrtchian attended California State University Los Angeles where she obtained her B.A. in English and M.A. in English Literature. She also attained her second master’s degree in Education Administration at California State University Northridge.

Mkrtchian said that she is eager to be part of Clark Magnet family filled with “talented, creative, bright, well-mannered students.”

“I love the kids at Clark. I’ve been raving about you guys,” Mkrtchian said. “Just the other day an associate of mine was drinking a Starbucks hibiscus iced tea and I was saying, ‘Oh I wish I had Starbucks. Then the next day a student bought one for me. I love coming to work.”

Mkrtchian said how her being a mom to two boys, thirteen and nine years old, is very important for her to bring into her work life because she can assess certain problems not only with an administrative perspective, but with a motherly perspective as well.

After school hours, Mkrtichian said that she enjoys reading Shakespeare as well as playing Mario Kart with her nine-year-old son. “It’s a hidden talent of mine,” Mkrtchian said. “It’s a good release for me, and I’m good at it.”

“She is really friendly,” said John Bandek, ASB Vice President. “We talked about her son and how he’ll be coming to Clark soon and how he’ll want to be an ASB officer. Although it was only a ten-minute conversation, I still feel she’s a great person to talk to and get advice from. Her speech from the first day of school was really nice. She was comfortable welcoming students to the new school year with her heartfelt speech, which shows what a great assistant principal she will be for the years to come.”