Principal's Message 9/15/08

DO WE WELCOME PEOPLE?

For me, it is difficult to hear criticism. I strive so hard to be perfect, even though it’s unattainable. Regardless, I want to be as close as possible especially with Central Park East Middle School – JHS 13. I reflect on this regularly. I do not know when it became easier to hear about what was not working in the school: when there was so much to point out or now-a-days after we have invested so much time and energy into turning the school around. What makes the criticism less painful is I am constantly reminded that it’s not only about me. What’s really important are the children we have in our building and within our community; the staff and the parents as well.

Recently, it has been brought to my attention how people feel when they enter our building. Several people have mentioned the missing element of community when they walk through our corridors. I was taken back when I initially was made aware of this. To be honest, it hurt to hear it. I felt as though I did everything in my power to make people feel as though they are welcomed. In addition, I know we have great people in our school who cordial and inclusive. Everyone I encounter when I walk into the lobby, stairwell, hallways, and designated rooms seem very pleasant.

In a nutshell, after assessing, I felt like we were being attacked. As though, “can anyone say anything nice about our school?” After hearing about it initially, I had many reactions. You can go around searching for the people who you think might be making the environment less cordial to our constituents. There is the other option of having faith in your faculty and assuming it was a one-time deal and will probably never happen again. If it gets mentioned once, you can probably brush it off (which I did). If it’s brought up again, then maybe you should start to explore it on your own. When that third time happens, you can face the fact that it’s probably true.

In order for me to look at this accusation with clear vision, I had to change my perspective of the issue. I was looking at everyone within the building and trying to convince myself of people who could be jeopardizing everything we have worked so hard for. Then it hit me. I had to stop investigating what we were doing and start looking at what we weren’t doing. We have slowly been opening up our classrooms and efforts to the people around us. As we continue to share what we have been doing and what smaller communities we are building within the four walls designated to us, we begin to realize it is much easier when we work as a team. Grade teams are excelling because they continue to move toward a model of shared responsibilities. Our next needed move is to open up our teams to the community-at-large.

THE CONSTITUENTS OF OUR COMMUNITY

The first thing that must be done is to learn about the people who enter our building. The parents of our community endured a public school system which was failing the children. With a graduation rate which has just recently broke 50% rate, students were being lost on a regular basis over a decade ago. That means one out of every two children was dropping out. Imagine being in a facility which allowed for half of your class to fail, never adjusting or making changes to stop this awful trend. As a recipient of this system, I would have felt angry and let down. I would question the same system for the rest of my life and I would consider myself a fighter to make sure my child or children would not have to endure the same system I grew up with. In a lump sum, I would not trust the education system. With only 50% of our community having a high school diploma, we might have to consider that this distrust is lingering within our community. Reflecting on my career here, we can understand what it’s like to want to trust what is going on around you but still having a tainted feeling within. We must consider that our parents and guardians are possibly feeling the same way about the school system we invest our efforts into.

When something goes wrong with one of our students, a fight, a grade, discipline, or an accident of some sort, we should consider the perspective of the parent of that child when they come to visit. He or she will enter a building just like the one he or she attended years ago where he or she hardly learned anything, no one cared about him or her, and he or she never felt like someone special. Since most of our schools look alike, you can only assume the nostalgia begins as he or she sees the building from a distance. When the actions of the people within the corridors reminds our parents of the system they endured, we cannot be surprised when they accuse us of not doing our job, lying, being incompetent, or negligent. Actions that remind our parents of their previous experience spark these feelings. Anything that makes it appear as though we do not care or that portrays us as blaming them for our difficult situations. This would look like a place where hardly anyone acknowledges your existence, no one helps you get to where you are going, unorganized events are hosted, adults are yelling at children, and pride is not felt throughout the building.

I am not at all saying we must endure the chips on the shoulders of our parents on a daily basis. What I am asking you to do is to have consideration when you address them. I am also asking us to work together to prevent the old nostalgia they might be feeling by transforming our community into one that we are proud of not only in our classrooms but in all common areas. This requires us to wear the hat of a business and to treat all the constituents of our community as customers. Not only does this need to stretch to all staff members, but the principal must be conscious of it as well. In the past, I have been so focused on what I was doing that I did not say “hi” or help a person in the hall. There have been times I have lost patience with a student and resorted to a tone I would never let an adult use with a child of mine. In previous years, I have put together events with a focus on how much effort I was willing to give rather than the audience I was attempting to host (it’s tough to keep going when no one is attending your events).

It’s time for us to extend our community efforts to the overall pride of the school. It’s time to hold back from judging a person from a moment of interaction. It’s time to stop assuming that our parents do not care and start looking at how we can give them the opportunity to show that they do. In the next few weeks, I will be working with parents and our organizational cabinet and visiting successful schools to see what we can do to help our school feel like a welcoming environment. What I will need from all of you is an open mind, a willingness to reflect, and a desire to continue to improve our school.

ANNOUNCEMENTS FROM THE DISCIPLINE COMMITTEE

The discipline committee meets every week from 3:15 to 4:15 to address issues surrounding the structure, implementation, and effectiveness of the school-wide discipline code. In our first meetings, we have set goals for the school year and addressed some issues regarding the code's implementation.- JOIN THE COMMITTEE: Members of the discipline committee are eager and excited to work with new staff members and veteran staff members interested in improving our school's culture. Please join us at this week's meeting on Thursday in Ms. Quiambo's room. - ANTI-BULLYING CAMPAIGN: Please be on the lookout for any signs of bullying in the school. Expect resources from the discipline committee regarding this issue in the coming weeks.

PRAISES OF THE WEEK

Ms. Stephens for beginning the process of setting up the staff school T-shirt day
Ms. Vargas for her outstanding Spanish Charades lesson to learn vocabulary
Ms. Dion for embracing the MECCA rubric and setting up a great lesson with analyzing pictures to match to new vocabulary
Mr. Schultz for his mentos-soda experiment with the 7th graders. Talk about engagement!!
Ms. Perez and Ms. Goldsmith for their relentless dedication in assessing all the students who were identified for needing AIS
Ms. Markopoulos for her outstanding library
Dr. Schultz for being our first ever Student Council Advisor and School Spirit Coordinator!
John Gonzalez and Phil Williamson for their hard work in cleaning out the ELA closet
The Attendance committee for knocking down our total number of absences to less than 35 students
Ms. Word for making a wonderful sign for our Open School Night for our lobby
Dr. Phelps for collecting money for the Pooler Family
Ms. Terri and Ms. DeStaffan for organizing and excecuting on our memorial for 9-Eleven
Mr. Seeram for putting together our new data binders together
The entire Special Education department for completing their assessments
Ms. Lee for her hard work with the child study team and her unbelievable efforts to follow up with everyone!
Mr. Mezan for his incredible ability to praise the individual students in his classroom as well as the tables in his room. He is paving the way for building community within his classrooms.
Ms. Blanding for her hard work in getting the classes organized and handling the intakes.



BIRTHDAYS:

Latanya Phelps September 5th
Renne Word September 12th
Melissa Quiambao September 12th
Jocelyn Unger-Baitz September 23rd
Jeanette Vega September 28th
Daughn Lee September 30th

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“The major block to compassion is the judgment in our minds. Judgment is the mind's primary tool of separation.” --Diane Berke

COMING SOON....
ATTENDANCE
COMMUNITY CORNER