Remembering Dr. Frazier

An arrogant 26-year-old walked into the principal's office to interview for an assistant principal intern position. He was the first of 3 interviews for the day and all of the applicants knew one another from their graduate classes. When the interview was over, he asked "When do I start?" Dr. Geroge Frazier, the principal, reminded him that there were two other interviews. "I know," the interviewee said, "But I know who they are, and I know who I am. So when do I start?" 

Dr. Frazier called me back two days later to welcome me to the school. I shouldn't have answered the phone. I was in the delivery room with my wife and my new daughter, Reagan. That arrogance went away quickly when I had to ask for a few days before I could start. But he was happy for me and gave me all the time I needed. He was always good at humbling me.

I only worked with Dr. Frazier for one year before he retired from education. He had been the principal at JH Rose High School for a decade and had such a wealth of knowledge. He was way past the excitement of fights or angry parents. He took everything in stride and had such a calm demeanor about him in stressful situations. He carried me everywhere with him that year. I had access to principal meetings, expulsion hearings, and even his resignation with the superintendent. He wanted me there to see and learn, but I was certainly the only principal intern there. He always used to start sentences with, "When you are Dr. Greene..." and follow it with some piece of sound advice that I probably couldn't fully understand at the time. The one that stuck with me was when he told me this: "When you are Dr. Greene, remember that D-R does not equal G-O-D." 

Dr. Frazier called me a few times after he left the school that year. Usually, he wanted me to fix his laptop or wanted a copy of the school newspaper because he wouldn't come in the building to get it. A few months later he passed away. His funeral is still the longest and largest funeral I have ever attended. At 26 years old, I had no intention of earning my doctorate and I brushed off his "when you are Dr. Greene" phrases as nothing more than flattery. But apparently, he was right and for some strange reason, I thought of him the morning I defended my dissertation. I hope he would have been proud. 

I learned a lot from Dr. Frazier that year, and I have learned a lot more from so many of you since then. You have put up with a once-young (now not so much) principal that was genuinely figuring things out as he went sometimes. And while I'm certain that there were times when you may not have agreed with me, you were patient and we figured things out together. While I'm proud of the accomplishment of finishing the degree, I'm more proud of the experiences that shaped me getting here. Experiences with each of you. I think that's what Dr. Frazier might have meant by not being God. I earned a title, but I still don't know everything. It's the wealth of knowledge and experience around us that continues to shape and grow each of us no matter where we are. So thanks for your help along the way. I couldn't have done it the same way without you.

One Year Later

One year ago on March 11th, my family sat at Pizza Villa celebrating my oldest daughter's birthday. We had just left a track meet and we were trying to cheer Rylee up for her birthday after she wasn't too happy with her performance at the meet. Food always changes her mood. I started receiving a flurry of texts about a two-week school shutdown that disrupted the rest of the evening and the next 12 months that followed. 

Last week I wrote about resilience and the many ways that it has shown up this school year. It's been a long year and we have all certainly had many highs and many lows. We have drawn closer to certain friends and family members and been separated from others. We have lost loved ones or know people that have. We have defended or argued against policies put in place that impacted our lives. We developed opinions and changed our minds. But we are still here.

This week our Governor and General Assembly announced that schools would be reopened. I had a parent ask me what I thought about it and I reminded them that we have been open since August 17th. We have been open to in-person learning, virtual learning, late-night Remind messages, phone calls and texts from parents, policy changes, and demands. We have been open to changing how and what we teach. We adjusted to some of it well and for others, it has been a bumpy road. Now, as we look to finishing out the school year with more students in front of us than we have seen in a year, we face one more hurdle. Like all of the other challenges, we will be anxious and we may question motives, but we will still be here. 

I know that this isn't Teacher Appreciation Week, but maybe it should be. Thank you to each of you that have continued to show up over the past year. Thank you for trying when your students haven't. Thank you for adjusting when you might not have agreed. Each of you stands like a lighthouse in a storm and together we will get them through the end of this disruption and get back to the business of school. 

One year later....thank you.

A Theme in News Stories

Over the past two weeks, I've spoken to the media about our school more than I have in the past year combined. It started with the story about Ben Lozano's return to school following cancer treatment. This week I spoke with a reporter doing a story on rural school facilities. and a lack of funding that was promised to improve them three years ago from our state legislature. If you're been anywhere near the work on the library hall or the water leak behind the greenhouses this week, you know this is an issue. Yesterday, I got to participate in a story about how rural schools are making school work this year given the specific challenges that we face. Schools and learning are hot topics right now politically, so it doesn't shock me that news outlets are paying attention to what school is like right now and how different school looks in different places. The pandemic exposed some inequities that many of us have known about for years.

When I was listening to one of our Seniors, Meredith Beaman, speak with the reporter yesterday something hit me. Meredith was asked if she thought that virtual learning during her Senior year would hold her back or make her unprepared for starting college next year. Clearly, the question sets her up to say yes, but that's not what they got. Her response acknowledged the work that our school had done to help students, but it also acknowledged a mindset. Meredith told the reporter that she feels more prepared for college after this year because, in college, it is on you to motivate yourself to do the work and participate when you are supposed to. 

While the three news stories are unrelated, there certainly is a theme. Remember back a couple of years ago, we worked hard on trying to teach resilience? Well, something stuck. Think of the resilience it took for Ben Lozano to fight cancer and return to school without scars on his head even fully healed. Think of the resilience that our staff has undergone this year mixed with the struggle of a school that sometimes needs some work to keep it going. And while so much of our focus this year has been on the kids that are not keeping up with their work, don't forget that most of them are. We are a resilient bunch and there are examples of it all around us. And while being resilient isn't always easy or convenient, it gets the job done.