By Jareem Garvin
Q: What position(s) did you hold in education prior to becoming a Vice Principal?
A: “Prior to becoming a Vice Principal at Chicopee High School, I was a teacher for about 10 years in high school science and technology, and I was an Assistant Principal for 5 years at Commerce and Principal at S.T.E.M. Academy."
Q: What is the biggest challenge you face on a daily basis?
A: “I'd say the biggest challenge would be having everyone work on the same page to meet everyone's (teachers, students and parents) criteria of how they want school to go. How to build a community to have everyone work together in order to make the best learning environment.”
Q: How do you feel about YONDR? What are the benefits of it?
A: “I think the benefits of YONDR include the eliminating of distractions in education, limiting drama which can lead to bigger conflicts, and helps people build their social skills in that they have to talk in person to other people, communicating with words to resolve conflict instead of resolving it in violent ways or through text. It helps people say what they have to say face-to-face and not just through a screen. Behind a screen, individuals may say reckless things. More than 95% of conflicts I have had to situate started with a social media post.”
Q: What are the challenges you're facing with YONDR?
A: "I think the challenge is, especially for an administrator, doing the 'heavy lifting.' We are already in April, and if we started YONDR in September, it would already have been adjusted to. We would be past the 'rough patch' of starting a new incentive. Another challenge is that I think students struggle socially and emotionally. As of the advent of the pandemic and all of the madness over the past couple of years, we taught [students] to rely on technology, but now we're trying to rebuild their social skills, and have them not depend on technology. We are partially responsible for creating a social monster. Having been an administrator of a S.T.E.M. school, I can see the benefits of science and technology, but I can also see the negative impact that technology can have on young minds. Students don't read textbooks anymore---they simply Google things. They don’t depend on primary, reliable sources, which leads to cases of plagiarism. I think YONDR has more benefits to it, but when you are the first in the district to do something, you want to do it right.”
Q: Have you ever administered disciplinary action that you felt, later on, was too harsh or unnecessary?
A: "Personally, I might have felt that I would have handled certain situations differently in hindsight, but I don't feel I have ever issued an unnecessary disciplinary punishment. Every district has a code of conduct or set of rules that are based off of school law. So, when we look into the school laws, we see if the violation in question is 'against the law.' We have to follow the policies that we are given, and even if I feel it's unnecessary to do, I might have been able to handle it differently. We have to follow the rules. At times, it might seem too harsh, but there's that gray area where it's between right and wrong. For instance, you might have stolen a pencil, but JoJo might have stolen a pencil more than 5 times. You might receive a different disciplinary consequence than JoJo because his would be considered a repeated offense. There was a young man who was the leader of a senior prank, which could of caused physical harm to other people. His prank was supposed to be a harmless prank, but he was suspended because his actions were considered vandalism, which resulted in his birthday, senior prom, and his ability to walk across the stage to be taken away from him."
Q: Was your educational end goal always a position as an administrator?
A: "Actually, no. It was a different time back then, and my educational goals changed over time, There was a time I wanted to be the first black president, and there was a time I wanted to be a car saleswoman. College back then was for wealthy people who had the money for it, and back then people could start working at companies at entry level with no college degree, College wasn’t on my radar until 3-4 years into my own high school career, and in college I declared a total of 3 different majors. I didn't always know what I wanted to do, but I always knew how to do it. I wanted to be a guidance counselor, and then I thought I should go into phycology, then as time went on, I discovered that teaching is what I want to do, but the question arose=== 'what should I teach?' Then, I decided to be a high school history teacher. Once I figured out that it's more of just regular education, I went and got a masters degree in administrative education."
Q: Were there any people (family, friends, peers) who doubted your ability to be an effective administrator?
A: "It was a different time period, and where I grew up and the time I grew up, not everyone went to college. Family and friends didn't know what it took to go to college and they recommended I just go get a job and get money the 'right' way. They didn’t say explicitly that they didn’t believe in me, they just didn’t understand the level of dedication necessary to continue on into college and take the small steps in the struggle. Being a woman, especially a woman of color, it was more difficult because we were still working in a society trying to create better opportunities for women of color, for us to have equal pay opportunities, and even to this day, that's a fight that we still deal with. There are typically more male history teachers and typically more male leaders. Things are starting to shift, but when you look at the pay rate, it isn't equal. These problems are societal and not just in one area or another."
Q: What was your most memorable year as an administrator, and why?
A: "My first year as a school principal... yeah, definitely my first year as a school principal. I was hired as a replacement, where it was another one of those heavy lifting things in the school trying getting the staff to work together with parents and students. We had 1,800 students in the school, and to be able to have a successful year with graduates and everyone learning, it felt good to see. To be completely honest, when I was a principal, when I was the founding principal of S.T.E.M. and there were students already listed, was my most memorable year. I worked at Commerce, but this was my first formal administrative role."
Q: What is the biggest “mistake” you made in your position?
A: "Hmm, I'd have to search through the archives for that one! What I can say for certain is that you go through training and courses, which gives you book knowledge and the theory of how things would work. But when you get in the field you are dealing with people, you're constantly learning and asking questions to better yourself. When it comes to decision-making, the principal is the one who would make the call when and I ask permission for if something would be a good decision, I work by the book and I do what I am trained to do, so I make sure before I decide anything. I ask my team and I see how they feel about it, because that's the best way to go about it. So I can say, when it comes to that, there's isn’t a mistake. It's based on what the rules say and that's how it works."
Q: What’s the most absurd situation that you’ve had to deal with here at Chicopee High?
A: "There's always something. Like the TikTok challenges, or how to prepare to address something even if it's not school-related. The phone usage, the online arguments, chasing vapers in school. I wish I could really just deal with the social and emotional ascepts of people, seeing that we had a period of remote learning and everyone isn't as social. We don't want people in our space because of what is going on and now we have to share space. We have to get people back on schedule and get them used to being in school on time. I don't get a chance to be an educational leader where I can help them because we are dealing more with behavior, and things that aren't school-related. And kids have issues that form outside of school, so dealing with it is difficult. So it's not as interesting as it could be, but with the amount of time that we deal with comments and the open disrespect, it's hard to interact with the situations we need to take care of."
Q: How different is your personality outside of school compared to in school?
A: "Vastly different. I take care of business wherever you see me. At work I'm fun, I'm approachable, but outside I'm more silly and outgoing with the people I'm comfortable with and within my circle."
Q: What’s one moment that stands out to you that made you question your decision to become an administrator?
A: "There are times where, for me, education and administration is about service---Human service and communication with families and students. Then. there are times when politics and law override what is going on. There are times where things aren't really good for working in the field, so I believe times can certainly be difficult when being an administrator."
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