Our Principals
Mrs. Joanna Mitchell - Principal
Welcome to NTHS! Being the Principal of North Tahoe High School is a dream come true for me! I could not ask for a better educational team, group of students, or community to work with. North Tahoe is a very special school built on the ideals of support, respect, achievement, and fun!
I grew up in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, outside of Philadelphia and attended The Pennsylvania State University, earning a BA in English. I then joined Teach for America, taught high school English in rural North Carolina and moved quite a bit throughout the country. When I moved to Lake Tahoe in 2000, I knew I had found my home. Though I originally came for the mountain biking and skiing, I have stayed for the community, the people of North Tahoe, especially the young people. Here I have found a family within the community and decided it is the ideal place to raise my two children.
Having previously taught English at six different schools from public to private to charter and college in four different states, I began working at North Tahoe High School in 2003 and knew I’d never leave. Since then, I have worked as an English teacher, assistant principal, and now principal since 2011, and I plan to stay for the rest of my career. I am fully invested in and dedicated to this school and this community. We have achieved so much in the past fifteen years, earning national and statewide recognition as a California Gold Ribbon School and a U.S. News & World Report high achieving high school. We are involved in a strategic and continuous cycle of improvement as we seek to get better and better every year. Our staff is relentlessly dedicated to fostering high levels of learning for each and every student and supporting them through all of the challenges that present themselves throughout the teenage years. But the Laker students are the heart and soul of NTHS; everything revolves around them. They inspire me to be the best that I can be as they grow and achieve more than they ever thought they could, and they make NTHS a place I want to be EVERY DAY.
Mr. Jason Flesock - Assistant Principal
I am excited to continue my role as Assistant Principal at North Tahoe High School for this upcoming school year! I feel very lucky to have been a part of the Laker community for the past several years and am incredibly excited to continue being a part of this great school working with our incredible community of students, staff and parents.
I am a California native, growing up in Orange County. I attended the University of California San Diego, where I obtained both a B.S. in Chemical Education and a Masters in Education Studies. I began my teaching career in San Diego in 2005, teaching at Wangenheim Middle School. I then began teaching at The Preuss School UCSD, a grade 6-12 charter school for low income students who would be the first in their families to go to college. The school was named the Top Transformative School in the country by Newsweek magazine for several years in a row. There I taught Chemistry, AP Chemistry, Advanced Science, Astronomy and Athletic.
In 2017, our family moved up to the Tahoe-Truckee area, where I began teaching at North Tahoe High School. I taught Chemistry and AP Chemistry and was also the Science Department Chair. Additionally, I served as the Girls Varsity Basketball Coach, leading the program in 2023 to its first NIAA 2A Northern Regional Championship in the school's history.
My wife is also a teacher in the district at Glenshire Elementary School, and we have two kids, Rylan and Paisley, as well as two Aussies, Minnie and Koda. I am an avid skier and mountain biker, and I love to go backpacking, hiking and camping. I believe strongly in the power of connections in school, where strong relationships are vital to putting students first. I am a firm believer in promoting equitable and inclusive practices for all students, as well as fostering a challenging academic environment that ensures all students are college and/or career ready.