PARIS – The Maine Principals Association announced that Chris Record, assistant principal at Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School, has been named Maine’s Assistant Principal of the Year for 2008.

“It was a surprise,” Record said Thursday. He became assistant principal in 2004, serving alongside 2nd Assistant Principal Jan Gauger.

He said the award reflects a team effort.

“There’s no question that what happens here is a team effort,” he said of any successes at the high school.

Record was interviewed by the association as a finalist on Monday. Principal Ted Moccia nominated Record.

In announcing the selection, MPA Executive Director Richard Durost said, “Mr. Record’s inclusive leadership style, his leadership of a federal school and districtwide grant, and his work to help students maximize their performance and post-secondary readiness, epitomize the very best qualities of those who serve in the role of assistant principal in Maine’s secondary schools. His coordination of a federal Small Learning Communities Grant that is helping to raise student aspirations and his use of data to improve the curriculum are just two examples of his ability to extend the scope of his position beyond the traditional student management realm of the assistant principal.”

Record, a 34-year-old who lives in Turner with his wife Angela and children Ashton and Kyleigh, began his career in Oxford Hills in 2001 as a social studies teacher. He said one of the most difficult things in his job is balancing the multitude of things that happen very day. “It’s also the most exciting, never knowing what’s going to happen. It’s an exciting place to be,” he said.

Record, who grew up in Wilton, said he will be recognized by the National Association of Secondary School Principals at a three-day program in Washington, D.C., in April. The recognition program, sponsored by Virco Inc., will include professional development activities, networking opportunities with the honorees from the other 49 states and a black-tie dinner and awards program.

Record received his bachelor of arts degree in history from Bates College in 1995 and his master’s degree in education in the educational leadership program from the University of Southern Maine in May. Prior to serving in Oxford Hills, he was an assistant director of an adolescent residential program in Taunton, Mass., and worked as an alternative education teacher in North Carolina.

Record is a member of the Maine Principals Association, the National Association of Secondary School Principals and the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.