Meet your new acting principal at Sarina State High

An educator for 26 years, Lisa Veney is passionate about helping teens feel confident to face the world.

Sarina State High School acting principal Lisa Veney. Picture: Contributed.

SARINA State High School’s new acting principal describes herself as a “local girl”, having completed her own schooling at Mackay Central State School and Mackay State High School.

Lisa Veney will now be acting principal for the remainder of 2020.

She said her favourite part of the job was helping teenagers finish school with the confidence to head out into the “rest of the world”.

“I’ve always loved being in education,” Ms Veney said.

“Seeing the kids leave Year 12 at the end of school is one of the best things … that’s what we’re all here for.”

Sarina State High School acting principal Lisa Veney. Picture: Contributed.

She has three of her own teenagers and her husband Matthew Bampton is an electrician with Main Roads.

Their son Riley is the eldest followed by twin girls, Harriet and Evie.

They also have two adopted doggies. Ziggy is the “upstairs dog that is a bit of a princess, a bit of a Jack Russell cross” and Douglas is the bull terrier downstairs.

Then there is Pearl, the “nasty cat,” Ms Veney laughed.

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Ms Veney comes to the role at Sarina after a long list of regional positions in the Central Queensland region including working at Mirani State High School and Mackay North State High School.

She was also the deputy editor at Longreach and at Mackay State High School.

Ms Veney said her role as acting principal would focus on making the decisions that were best for the students and staff at the school.

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As for her first impressions of Sarina, she said the community was “very supportive of the school” describing the relationship as a “real positive”.

“The school seems to be a bit of a hub,” she said.

“It’s a smaller town so it’s very friendly and the staff are very supportive of each other.”

But a particular challenge would be “attracting teachers to our region”, she said.

“We all think it’s a great region, but at the moment, there is a teacher shortage.”

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