CHESAPEAKE — On the wall of his office at Chesapeake High School’s new principal, Troy Tucker, has tacked up a small piece of paper with the cryptic message: WBFK.

It is what propelled him into the classroom almost 20 years ago. It is what keeps him focused as he takes on the duties as leader at Chesapeake High. It is his philosophy of life as an educator.

It stands for “What’s Best for the Kids.”

“It means doing what is best for the kids,” Tucker said. “I want us to offer a high quality education to provide our students with the opportunities to do what they want after high school. Whether it is college, the military, a trade school or just to get a job, to pursue what their dreams are.”

The Mason, W.Va., native knew in high school what career path he wanted to take.

“I knew early on I wanted to be a teacher and coach,” he said. “Some of my role models in high school were teachers and coaches. I looked up to them and respected them. I wanted to be like them. I looked up to them because they made you realize they cared so much about us and would do anything for us.”

In high school Tucker played football, basketball and baseball where he found the playing field offered life lessons.

“Sports teaches a lot of things you can’t teach in the classroom,” he said. “Leadership, team work, accountability and responsibility.”

In 1992 Tucker took his bachelor’s degree in education and began teaching at Our Lady of Fatima, a kindergarten through eighth grade school in Huntington, W.Va. There he also coached basketball and golf. From Huntington he went to West Muskingum High School in Zanesville where he first taught, then later was named assistant principal.

In 2008, he earned his master’s degree in education from Muskingum College in New Concord.

Going up the ranks into administrative work provides the kind of challenge Tucker seeks out.

“I wanted something different and more,” he said. “I like leadership positions, putting all the pieces together to make a whole.”

As school starts on Friday, Tucker plans to be a presence in the halls of the high school that provides education for 380 students in that building, plus 70 at the Collins Career Center.

“I am a hands-on kind of person,” he said. “I like to see in the classroom and the hallway. I want to be outside and seeing what the kids are doing.”

And what the Chesapeake students have been doing so far impresses the new principal who comes back to the area with his wife, Tammara, and daughter, Allie.

“What has been done here is very good,” he said. “The education here is of good quality. We are really excited about being back. This is the area we consider home. And to be part of a good school district as Chesapeake.”