It's about 10 a.m., and Amesbury Elementary School Principal Walter Helliesen is proudly strolling through the halls of his bustling community of 21 classrooms and five specialists' rooms. There are fourth-graders in the music room dancing and singing to Bruce Springsteen. There are Pre-K students elbows deep in sand and paint. And in Liz Morris's first-grade classroom, students are eager to show their principal the school's newest additions.

"Look, Mr. Helliesen! Look!" the children call as he takes just a few steps into the classroom. "They hatched!"

Helliesen is then absorbed into the environment to check out the chirping baby chickens, engulfed by a flurry of tiny bodies that barely come up to his waist.

As principal, Helliesen tries to be such a frequent fixture in the classrooms that the students don't even look up from their work when he enters. But his friendly nature and infectious charisma make it nearly impossible for him to be part of the scenery.

"The best part of my day is when I leave this office and just do a walk through the school and stop in every classroom," he said. "It's amazing just to see the wealth of knowledge that teachers are bringing into the classroom."

At the end of his first year on the job, a year he said has "gone wonderfully," moments like that are the ones he remembers dearly from his experience at AES.

"Their acceptance of me is really rewarding. I can walk out onto the playground and all of a sudden I'm playing in a football game, or I can walk into a classroom and instantly I'm explaining common denominators and fractions. I think that's because they see all adults here as help. They know people working here are here for them. They feel comfortable asking anyone anything or sharing anything."

And he could never nail down just one single moment as his favorite since starting the job in September.

"There are just so many," he said. "It's not a photograph, it's a video."

For Helliesen, his highlight reel from the past year would be a long one. It would include his posing for a drawing class full of second-graders, and the array of art work that resulted. It would show every Thursday afternoon when his pre-K students come in to sing him the songs they've been practicing. Then there would be all the students who get rewarded for their extra hard work by getting to read with him.

The 48-year-old (who had to think for a minute about how old he actually was), had been the principal at two other schools before coming to AES and was an educator for 25 years.

But his career path began being laid much earlier.

"In sixth grade, I knew I wanted to be a teacher," he said.

The summer after his sixth-grade year, Helliesen had the opportunity to work at a summer camp for children with special needs. Then more than 10 years later, he graduated with a degree in elementary and special education from Fitchburg State College. His first job out of college was as a special education teacher.

Although he has taught all levels of students in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, The Exeter, N.H., resident was happy to return to Amesbury | a town he lived in 20 years ago | and to the elementary school level. He said the age of the students was a main reason for taking the job.

"By the time kids reach middle school, they've already made up their minds about a lot of things," Helliesen said. "The ability to influence and shape them changes at that level. At the elementary school level, I have a greater opportunity to have a lasting impact on them."

A welcome surprise in his first year has been the parents and families in the AES community who have contributed greatly to the educational growth of their children.

"One of the things that has impacted me the most is the number of parents who make a point to come up to me and tell me how great this year was for their children," he said. "The support they have for their children is really the most important factor of whether a child will learn. We have so many parents that come in all the time to volunteer and we have a fantastic PTA. And even if they can't make it into the school, they're sitting down at night and reading to their kids. We know this because we can see a difference. The growth that's happening doesn't just happen between 8:30 and 3."

Another important puzzle piece to the success of AES are the teachers and staff, who Helliesen said deserve all the credit. In particular, he cites the building manager Dave St. Germain for his great help, and his two secretaries Linda Clark and Helen Nadeau.

"The real heroes in the school are the secretaries," he said. "They truly run the entire school and make me look good."

He is also thankful to his counterpart at Cashman Elementary School.

"In my time here, I can't say enough about Peter Hoyt and his support of me," he said, "and the millions of questions he's answered for me over the course of the year."

Also, Helliesen is thankful to Superintendent Charles Chaurette and the entire central office for helping him transition to the Amesbury community.

"Their assistance has been tremendous," he said.

After one year on the job, Helliesen has his eyes set on new challenges. He is working with Hoyt on perhaps restructuring the schedule of the school day to allow teachers from both AES and the Cashman School to work cooperatively. For example, Helliesen said that under a new structure, the students could be placed in groups to work on basics like fractions. Students struggling would be brought together to get some extra help and those excelling would be given enrichment activities.

"We're two schools but we're one elementary school program," he said.

Another challenge on the horizon that doesn't pose as many positive possibilities is the budget situation. Although he tries to stay optimistic, the loss of funds is looming heavier with each passing day, and Helliesen is worried that the students, who flourish under close contact with faculty and staff, will suffer.

"Amesbury lost a number of teaching positions last year, and that total is doubling next year," Helliesen said. "We're having to do more with less, and the class sizes are increasing. Programs like art and music, which are full-year offerings now, will be half-year offerings next year."

But to get through the tough times, Helliesen keeps a certain philosophy in mind: To make every decision based on what is best for the children. And after a year at AES under his belt, this simple adage is also a major part of his advice to other principals starting out in a new job.

"You need to make decisions that are in the best interest of the kids," he said. "If you use that as your guiding light, you still won't make everyone happy all the time but you'll be in the position that you've been intrusted with. And you need to spend a whole lot of time taking in information, listening and looking so that you can really get a sense of the culture that's in place in your particular school. Even though you're supposed to be the one with all the answers, you need to ask a lot of questions."

Helliesen found that the job of principal was much harder than he had once thought from looking on as a teacher. When he was the assistant principal at Sanborn Middle School in Newton, New Hampshire, he tried an experiment to see how many decisions he had to make. He put 100 paper clips in his pocket and moved one into the other pocket every time he needed to make a decision.

"They weren't all big things, but before homeroom was over, I had already moved all the paper clips," he said. "And I think that's symbolic of a typical day."

At the end of his daily walk through AES, Helliesen stood outside of his office with second-grade artists' renditions of him taped behind him. First, he joked that some of their rounded interpretations of his lean stature were a sign that he was gaining weight. Then, he reflected on one memorable year at the school.

"It truly is an honor and a privilege to be the principal of this learning community," Helliesen said, "and I look forward to being around for a while."