A View from the Now-Retired Principal's Seat

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.  I love pumpkin pie.  My blessings are bountiful, and it's important to be grateful.  Most of all we get together with friends and family with no pressure to have gifts.  This year, however, Thanksgiving feels a little tentative.  We will still have pie, and we try to be grateful all year long.  Our family and friends, however, will not be joining us. This was a difficult decision for us.  We love our friends.  We love our family.  For years my parents have visited from Wisconsin and we would have many friends join our table.  In fact, some of our friends have become "honorary" members of our family.  Pat is our widowed neighbor who has joined us for more than 20 years, and she is "Aunt" Pat to our daughters.  Our dear friend Janet has no other family close.  How can we possibly have Thanksgiving without Pat and Janet? And then we read the newspaper.  The Covid crisis is at new lev...

Ring, ring.  Ring, ring. Hello, who's there? 50?  I'm not sure who that is.  Say it one more time. Fifty?  You mean like Five Zero?  Are you sure you don't have the wrong number?  Aren't you looking for someone...uhm...much older ? Ok.  Ok.  Maybe you're right.  This is me. How did you get here so fast?  I really wasn't expecting you yet.  Where did you come from?  Hey...As long as you've called, I have lots of questions for you.  Are you really just 25 times 2?  I remember 25.  It was, after all just "yesterday," wasn't it?  Yes, I remember 25, but some days you feel like 25 times 4 to me.  Fortunately, most days you feel more like 25 plus just-a-few.   No, you don't scare me, and I guess I'm glad you're here.  Many of my best friends, mentors, and heroes have already met you.  They report mostly positives regarding your arrival.  I know, for sure, it's surely better than you ...

Dear Novi Woods Staff, Students, and Community, Well, we made it.  We made it to the weekend--the end of the first week of our 2020-2021 school year in which the world is still gripped in a global pandemic due to the Covid-19 crisis, and I've never been more proud of our school.   To be clear, I have NEVER-in my now more than 25+ years in our district-been more proud of our school and our school community.   I'm proud of our students who have inspired the adults to be better and do more than we probably thought we ever could.  You are why we do what we do.   I'm proud of and grateful to our parents for being so understanding and supportive of the many new details, my many miscommunications, and for raising remarkable young people.  Your patience with me and us has held me up in more ways than you will ever know. And, of course, I'm proud of our staff.  I am not speechless very often, but many non-educators might not fully understand what our ...

Thirty years ago a young mother registered her eldest son in kindergarten at Novi Woods.  In the next several years she registered her two younger children at Novi Woods as well as she and her husband raised their family in the Novi Community School District.  In those thirty years, that same mother became what we called a "lunch lady" and now call a noon aide at Woods.  She was hired as a paraprofessional helping to support students with special needs, and for the last ten years she has been the secretary at Novi Woods.  Actually, her official title is Administrative Assistant to the Principal, but even that fancy title does not give her role justice.  Now, I am sorry to share that Mrs.Sandy Rodriguez will be retiring as of September 1. To be very clear, Mrs. Rodriguez does not want to retire.  She loves her job.  She loves this community.  She loves this school and district.  She loves her colleagues.  Most of all, she loves her stude...

Late on Thursday, March 12, 2020 our state's governor ordered all schools to close their buildings beginning Monday, March 16, in response to the Covi-19 pandemic.  At that time we believed our schools would be closed for three weeks.  Unfortunately, our buildings remained closed until the end of the academic year.  Schools and educators and communities rallied to help continue learning to support our students.  Special projects were created.  Teachers hosted weekly Zoom activities.  We held virtual fieldtrips and socially-distant clapout parades for our graduating 4th graders and seniors.  The list remarkable. In an attempt to encourage reading and to maintain our school's learning community, I took to creating videos for my students.  The plans were grandiose at first and then we struck a rhythm that I hoped would provide comfort and solace in even a tiny way. I am grateful for the feedback and encouragement, and I wanted to collect all o...

Everyone is figuring "this" out. How do students and teachers learn and teach from a distance while managing our personal struggles and unique situations.  Parents are figuring out how to parent under some of the most stressful situations ever while balancing their own professional commitments.  I wish I had "the" answers.  I do know that each family and teacher is absolutely trying their best to make "this" work.  Have we seen some successes?  For sure.  Are some days more of a struggle than others?  Absolutely. I have been privileged to participate in many online class Zoom meetings with teachers and students where our staff is listening and supporting kids.  I've also spoken with many parents from my building who are working through this new reality.  Some days are clearly better than others for all of us, but f or our students I believe the  tone  we set in this new environment is just as important as  what  is being...

Dear Students of Novi Woods Elementary School, For most of you I've been your principal since you started school.  The staff and I have welcomed you since you were an incoming kindergarten student.  In some cases, I've known you since even before you were born because your older siblings have attended Woods!  Clearly we are a community in our school.  While we are "Growing Great Leaders" each day we are do so much more.  We help each other.  We listen.  We sing.  We dance.  We laugh.  We cry.  We inspire.  We hurt, and we create!  We struggle and achieve.  We make mistakes.  We forgive.  We love. By now you know our world has been turned upside down given the Covid19 pandemic.  I know I find myself in absolute awe of what has changed in just one week.  Sports, restaurants, worship services, libraries---and schools have been forced to close.  This is not normal.   It is unique, and...

"We're short." Our school secretary and I know exactly what that statement means when we text each other at about 6 AM.  Each morning I receive an emailed report showing the substitute teacher needs for the day.  As much as we try to be proactive with our guest teacher needs, it is almost impossible to plan for flu season.  Unfortunately, our staff was hit pretty hard this year with the flu.  In fact, we even had some  long-time guest teachers who could not sub because they were ill.  We had staff out for 3, 4, and even 5 days at a time.  Although I had to convince some colleagues to not come to school, I am grateful that our staff knows it is ok to be out.  Coming to school with the flu is not good for anyone, and it's surely not good for our students.    So, we were short guest teachers several days. Our staff and students support each other whenever a need arises.  We are flexible, and learning continues.  We hav...