Meet Jennifer Palaszynska-Mellott, the Assistant Principal at Olean High School with a story that's as unique as it is inspiring. As we chat, you'll be drawn into Jennifer's journey from the disciplined life of the military to the vibrant corridors of education. Her tales aren't just captivating – they're a masterclass in leadership adaptability. Witness the transformation of military precision into academic finesse, and discover how these skills are essential for nurturing a school environment where every student feels valued and part of a triumphant team.
This episode is a vibrant tapestry, weaving together the challenges of policy enforcement with the heartening pursuit of student engagement. Ever been caught between loyalty to your sports team and the joy of a family rivalry? We share a slice of life from the stands of a section championship, where school spirit and family fun collide amidst the excitement of the game. It's not all about the laughs, though; we dig into the essence of communication in education, the significance of building a positive school culture, and embracing our shared human moments of learning from mistakes. Join us for an exploration into the essence of what truly makes a school a hub of learning and growth.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Thank you so much for joining me on our next
full-length episode of the HuskyTuttle, and I am here with our
assistant principal from thehigh school, jennifer Kalosziska
.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Malop, not bad on the pronunciation.
Thank you, thank you.
So it's a mouthful foreverybody Pałaszńska, pałaszńska
, pałaszńska.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
All right, so tell me a little bit about yourself and
why you are the best Huskydaughter team.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
I don't know if I'd want to claim the title best.
I'm a bit more modest than that, but anyway.
So my background and I knowwhen we did the intros in the
beginning year to the communitysome of this information was in
there, but throwing that backout there, I'm from West Seneca,
new York, borne and Buffalo,and education is actually my
(01:06):
second career.
Although it's been my secondcareer for a long time, it's
still my second career.
I graduated out of KinesiusCollege with an undergrad in
German.
Yes, Konesius, but you can getaway with majoring in German
when you know you're going to becommissioned as an Army officer
.
So I was on the Army ROTCscholarship at Kinesius and was
(01:26):
commissioned as a secondlieutenant in the United States
Army in 1996 and served fiveyears in the regular Army or as
active duty, full-time Army.
There was a point that Idecided to that I wanted to come
back to my hometown in Buffaloand stay in the military in
terms of being in the NationalGuard, which I was in for 12 and
(01:48):
a half years, and then I'vebeen in the reserve since
January 2013,.
I continue to serve and I'm acolonel in the reserves, but I
got into education.
So I went home, got a master'sdegree in history and did my
teaching certifications in thenGerman and soul studies and
worked at the Western New YorkMaritime Charter School.
(02:09):
For a right place, right time,military background, you know.
I ended up there and that'swhere I taught and then worked
my way into administration whileI was there and got my
administrator coursework at BuffState and just worked there for
a number of years and it waskind of a nice environment for
me because I was able to, beinga military environment school.
(02:31):
I was able to blend.
It was an easier transition,you know, from military life to
civilian life when it was like ahalf step transition.
Nonetheless, there were stilltransitions that I had to do in
terms of understanding how onebuilds and sustains culture with
adolescence and youths asopposed to soldiers.
I mean, you know there'ssimilarities yet there's
(02:52):
differences, right One wouldimagine.
So there were some, you know,adjustments that I made in terms
of that career and my careerthere culminated with the, where
I spearheaded the building ofthe middle school project there
from Grant to operating it forfour years and I decided then to
put uniform on again full timefor a couple of years.
(03:12):
So I resigned my position therebecause I didn't want to leave
them short-handed and thencoming off of my active duty
orders and I landed here andonly in.
One of the things that I'vealways done in my, that I've
always been proud of in mymilitary career is the ability
to establish a healthy climateand culture at a unit and
(03:39):
establishing cultures that geartowards everybody understanding
that they're part of that groupand that group is successful and
they want to be part of awinning team.
And that was something I wasalways done pretty well at in
the military.
I was recognized in the NewYork Army National Guard for my
ability to do that when I was incommand in Jamestown and had
(04:03):
was New York State's nominee forthe MacArthur Leadership Award
because of that.
That translated intoeducational leadership,
particularly in my time atmaritime where I had to build an
entire culture from scratch andwe were able to do so in short
order.
And those experiences really iswhat I wanted to bring to bear
here at Olean that ability to toa through proactive, through
(04:28):
present leadership to be able toforge the right path towards a
better culture in the school.
There was a path that I did.
This Now I also taughtCommendant General Staff.
College Sounds fancy, right,kind of like the master's degree
of the Army.
I taught Commendant GeneralStaff College for some time as
well, and a lot of what wetaught because we're teaching in
(04:50):
that course young field gradeofficers, you think about like
captains, like younger captainsand brand new majors we're
teaching them how to do what wecall a paradigm shift, a major
change in how they view theirrole in the Army from that
smaller level Now they'regetting to that organizational
level, leadership level.
So think of it like thedifference between teacher and
(05:11):
now we're getting toadministration or a building
leader, and you have to viewthings differently.
You have to view a much biggerpicture.
You have to understandorganizational dynamics, you
have to understand people, andthis is a lot of what we taught
in that course and that reallytranslates over pretty well into
educational leadership and assuch, then I'd been informed of
(05:36):
what, not only my experiences,but those things that I taught.
There's things out there likethe Cotter organizational change
model and there's all theseother you know four models that
come out of the business worldand such that the military is
using, and you know education,any of these professions you
know, adapt these things, thesemodels and these theories and
leadership into their profession.
(05:57):
And so here I assessed okay, I'mnew to the school and I'm
walking in, right, and actuallyI'm down in Texas when I get the
call, because I was out of townfor a month or so and I'm like,
okay, so I'm new to the school,I'm an outsider, right, I'm not
from the community.
Yes, I'm from Western New York,but I'm not from the community.
Down here in the southern tier,there's long standing ways of
(06:20):
doing things.
This school's been here, youknow, and it's the central
school and it doesn't seem likethe same major flux of the focus
of the community.
The focus of the community hasalways been, okay, there's this
high school, right, right, evenif there's been certain changes
in the community and certainchanges in the high school, it's
always this Right exactly.
And there's staff that havebeen here for a very long time
(06:43):
and some really good staff thathave been here for a very long
time but nonetheless been herefor a very long time.
Long standing ways of doingthings.
And I had come from a verydifferent environment, being in
a military oriented charterschool.
And so I realized, okay, youknow one and I'm the assistant
principal, so I'm not going inas a principal even, and about
(07:04):
one of the worst things you cando, unless, unless some places
in crisis mode, one of the worstthings you can do is like you
can't come in guns ablaze andI'm going to change everything
right away.
And look at me and you justmake it even worse.
So you step back and I startedout by just trying to understand
the goals and intent of MrAndriano and then yourself, you
(07:26):
know what are you trying to,what are your concerns?
What are the long standinggoals?
What are the goals of the board?
And that was, if you recall,those were some of the first
questions I was asking, becauseI wanted to be able to what we
call nesting within.
So I want to like okay, I'mgoing to understand those goals
so I can see what can I do at mylevel to help reinforce those
goals.
It won't be, it might not bethe exact same goals and
(07:48):
certainly won't be the sameactions, but it'll be things
that nest within and supportinto that like pyramid type,
coming to the tip of like hey,this is what brings us all
together.
And this is we're going,focused on the mission of the
school, focused on the vision ofthe school, and then with
different goals and lines ofeffort that feed into that, and
I wanted to understand thatstructure that I was walking
(08:09):
into as much as possible beforeI did anything else.
And then I observed, I learned,I assessed, I was looking back.
What is?
You know?
What did I notice?
What is effective?
What is an effective, whatmight?
What are areas I might want toshake up a little bit, you know
when, when I get enoughcredibility to do so, enough
understanding to do so and thattakes time, typically, even like
(08:36):
in a military command, and Ialways go back onto my military
service, but it really wasfoundational to my professional
life and who I am as an adult.
And even as you come in like acommander to a military unit
again, unless something's incrisis mode or you're in some
high-tempo environment orsomething, generally speaking,
you take about the first threemonths.
(08:57):
You don't do any major policychanges, right, and that is in
an environment where you onlyhave so much in time and command
, you know.
So it's the same here.
I'm not, I'm trying to just seewhat's going on, not trying to
make too many changes, trying toget my face out there, being
present, being around thebuilding, talking to people.
I'm not just observingpassively.
(09:17):
I'm engaging with students.
I'm engaging with staff aroundthe building.
I'm engaging with not justteachers.
I'm engaging with aides.
I'm engaging with cafeteriastaff.
I'm engaging with themaintenance.
I'm talking to people that Iprobably not even used to being
talked to very often,particularly by the school
administration.
I talked to everybody.
(09:37):
It was like and that was how Idid with the military I talked
to privates I talked to.
I was always a very presentleader like that and that was
part of my ability to assess andlearn was through that just all
the time, as much as I possiblycould be in being around the
building, understanding whatconcerns are, gathering ideas
and, quite frankly, building acoalition.
(09:59):
So what you want to do is andthat sounds like that could be
misconstrued like, oh, you'regoing to lead a coup or
something right.
So building the coalition is tounderstand who in the building
can be an agent for positivechange and who in the building
(10:19):
is open to these processes andwho in the building could be
cheerleaders for differentinitiatives that are as long as
those initiatives are thoughtout well and as long as they
make sense, and that kind ofthing.
But different people thatyou're like OK, well, these are
people that are going to whenI'm not in the room.
They might be like hey, thatwas a really good idea that they
(10:42):
did, or that's hey, thisstuff's going well and
understanding those dynamicsaround the building and in the
organization and that's part ofbuilding that coalition
understanding.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
Has that been difficult?
Speaker 2 (10:56):
No.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
OK.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
No, I don't think so.
There was a number of peoplethat were.
I've gotten a lot of goodfeedback from various staff and
I know that there's even beentimes where I sat down with one
teacher and I helped them workthrough a conflict they had with
(11:18):
a student.
They're like, wow, nobody'sever done that exactly that way
with me before.
I was like, well, it can workif the students open to it and
willing to be part of thatactively and such and different
sides.
No, I'm not as hard as youwould think, but then again,
we're also starting small.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
So but hopefully those people who are part of
that coalition can share withothers, right yeah, fact of it
is.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Exactly how to inspire others to join Exactly
In terms of like, hey, let's geton board and let's train move
in.
These are some things that wecan do, and to do that, a lot of
times you want to generate whatwe call grabbing the low
hanging fruit.
So, are there things that needto be improved that can, with a
few couple tweaks, can maybe beimproved pretty readily, yeah,
(12:13):
and are they likely to besuccessful?
Right, and if you can generatethose short-term goals that you
can accomplish and shownear-term victories, that helps
strengthen and build thatcoalition right, and it gives
people confidence in what'shappening.
And then they feel like thatcan help with morale and it
(12:34):
feels like, hey, things aremoving and you know a better
direction here, a betterdirection there.
And that was part of what I had,you know it focused on.
And that's when I, you knowI've done things where I saw
there was because too manystudents in the hall.
Yeah, yeah, all right.
What are some things we can dowithin normal?
You know, I completely.
You know run-of-the-mill schoolkind of Pass control, like
(12:56):
things that we, you know anyschool, would do.
How can we tighten that up tohelp this issue, to make some of
the environment better?
And you know so we executed onthat In the January time frame
and you know, I know some ofparents in the community and
stuff remember when we pushedout hey, these are some things
we're doing here because we wantto tighten some things up.
That's what that was about, andabout making sure, trying to
(13:19):
help have students in the classmore often and you know not not
in the hallways and more bettersafety and better control, and
it's not that hard to do.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
Yeah, yeah, it was that hard to get across.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
I don't think it was really hard to get across.
There is a certain segment ofstudents who don't like that.
They're a little morerestricted.
I think there's more studentsthat Would like to be a little
bit less restricted, but they goalong because they're good
students and then, and then theyrealize, oh, wait a minute, oh,
I mean, maybe this isn't so bad, yeah, and then, of course, you
(13:56):
know I mean.
But there is a small segment ofstudents who's who have other
difficulties as well, who youknow.
Anytime their question like,hey, do you have a pass or where
were you supposed to be?
They get defensive about it.
Yeah, you know, which is partof why I put in the the training
that I had asked the firstperiod teachers to do across the
building when we were rollingthis out to the students, one of
(14:16):
the bullets I put in there islike teachers, you know students
, part of your responsibility isunderstanding that teachers
should be questioning whereyou're supposed to be and that
there's no reason to getdefensive about it.
You know, yeah, and but thereare, you know, certain segment
of students that I think youknow because they've had
difficulties in school for years.
Probably they get defensivebecause, well, they're always
(14:39):
garnering a little bit negativeintention, unfortunately.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Yeah, I wonder if they ever had it explained to
them.
This is the dynamic, and here'swhy I wonder if this is true
the first time.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
And I and I've done you know when I, when I do the,
I do my best to try to make surethe students understand.
Yeah, and they may not be evenreceptive at that moment.
Sometimes I follow up like, hey,remember, when I was talking to
you, you got the detention.
(15:11):
Yeah, do you understand why?
And then when I'm like, well,no, not really, I will, let's
talk about that real quick.
You know we're, let's walk andtalk, I gotta go to the next kid
.
I try to do that as much as Ican and I, you know, I think
part of that's because that'swhat my parents did with me.
Yeah, yeah, and they were.
(15:35):
I Remember, like my dad told methat when I was very little, if
I got a, I was very stubbornand Very headstrong little kid
and that, like you know, if hegave me a little smack on the
butt, I would just look at himwith this like look up like you
know, like this, yeah, like.
And he thought, oh, that doesn'twork.
(15:55):
Uh, it worked with my olderbrother, doesn't work with me,
yeah, so you know.
And they said, oh, but when weexplain something to you, this
is why you'd be like, oh, okay.
Yeah you know.
So maybe that partly influencedwhy you know I know what I do
here is In terms of trying toexplain that to the students.
I trying to communicate theseincremental changes to parents,
(16:18):
staff, students attain thoseshort-term progress and then
continue to be present as leader, taking an interest in students
and staff, while promotingaccountability, being out and
about.
I told you that sometimes it'sthings I would like to look at
more and I can't because I'vegot to focus on helping to build
that culture out in thebuilding and that takes time,
(16:40):
but I think it's important andtrying to get the culture onto
the track that we want, whereit's a culture focused on
classroom learning ultimately,and being part of that.
If you don't have that in place, all the other initiatives that
you might possibly try they'regonna have limited effectiveness
.
You've got to get those basicsdown to make sure that you have
(17:05):
a well-functioning schoolfocused on the classroom and
being in the classroom to beable to then bring things to the
next level, because otherwiseyou'll be spinning your wheels
and that's why culture was a bigfocus and I know that's a lot
of what I talked about when Icame in and the interviews and
such.
So I've been doing my besttrying to do that.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
I don't wanna continue to try to do that Well
it brings me back and that's apast snake, and it's good to
hear kind of the thought processbehind it, because when this is
shared then people realize it'spart of a larger systemic
effort and it's not just workingfrom the gut, it's just look,
(17:44):
we're trying to set these thingsin place so that we have a safe
, high performing schoolenvironment for our students and
staff.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
And I think sometimes that, yes, my military
background definitely influencedme, but it has been tailored
appropriately to the world ofeducation and it's not about
being controlling.
It's not about, oh, I'm gonnaexercise military discipline or
(18:16):
anything like that.
It's about trying to set thebest environment for the
students so they have the bestopportunity for success in their
lives, because, for them to besuccessful, their job here is to
learn.
Above all, their job is to learn, be able to set themselves and
learning, not just the reading,writing, arithmetic, as we say,
(18:37):
but learning how to properlyfunction within a democratic,
republican society, whichrequires an active, educated
populace.
To vote intelligently, however,it is that they will vote but
to be engaged and to be goodcitizens and understand how a
society should function well.
These are things they shouldknow for our country to continue
(18:58):
on which, I will admit, this ispart of my driver.
I have a deep love, as one ofyour imagine, for my country and
for my community, and having awell-functioning schools is
vital to sustaining those things, and we all make mistakes along
the way students, staff,administrators.
(19:19):
We all make mistakes along theway trying to do that.
But that focus is really to tryto get improve our community,
improve our country by makingsuccess possible for the
students as best as we can.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
And then it's a key function of public education
here.
Absolutely right, it's getcornerstone to prepare our next
wave of populace for that hugerole of sustaining the politics
I was gonna ask.
So we got feedback from a lotof parents who wanted a lot of
(19:58):
things like additional things inplace to help ensure the safety
of the students in the building.
Have you had any tension fromthose parents who don't quite
understand what we're doingsystemically to address their
concerns but also to make surethat it's done equitably and
(20:20):
it's done in a way that is fairand it's also in alignment with
our policies and expectations ofthe building?
Speaker 2 (20:27):
So generally not Generally there's not really
been pushback.
There was a gentleman who askedfor an audience just to get
some more clarification.
When I explained to him whatthe intent was behind, he's like
oh, that makes sense and that'sexactly what you should be
doing.
There have been a couple ofinstances, say for cell phones,
(20:52):
where and I would imagine, maybethe parents are younger and
they're used to, you know, theymay have had phones from an
earlier age as well and they'reused to having that ability to
have their children right therewith the phone and it just seems
(21:13):
second nature to always have aphone with them.
And sometimes if their studentgot you know, just fun for like,
oh yeah, they had their phoneduring the day, so they're going
to have a detention.
Sometimes in that conversationthe parents would be like, well,
and you hear them question alittle bit, and I think that is,
you know, there is a certainlevel of generational thing to
(21:34):
that.
Yeah, I mean, you know, when Iwent to high school there was
one pay phone.
Yeah, right, or you could go tothe office and use it, or to
the office, right.
And when we were, you know,growing up, we would, you know,
go out from.
You know dawn until dusk andyou know actually come back for
dinner or something, and whenthe street light Right and then
(21:56):
nobody can, nobody is contactingyou at all and you used to have
to use the pay phone to try,hey, I need a ride.
And that was so.
I think there is.
You know there is a little bitof a generational difference in
terms of what they're used to,but the research really shows
and in my personal experience ofthe years of maritime, it's
better not having the cellphones for the students for
multiple reasons, and I knowthere was a number of parents in
(22:16):
the community that they wantedthat as well.
And it does and it's, you know,it's funny about that from you
know what I'd heard, beenhearing.
You heard it from students aswell.
Sometimes they're reluctant toadmit it, but they're like it's
really better.
I wish I had my phone, but it'sbetter in the classroom, right
(22:37):
In the classroom, we're not,people aren't pulling the phones
out all the time and getting onthem and distracting the class
or distracting themselves, andthen students are actually
talking with each other more.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
Right, especially at lunch, right Like everybody
talks about.
That's just been the greatequalizer in the cell phone
policy that you can go to lunchand you can observe students
talking with their peers, withtheir friends and with staff
that are in the morning, andbefore that was not happening at
(23:09):
all, so it's good to see thatit's before.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
it looked like a Starbucks or something.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
Yeah, where everybody's hunched over a
device, kind of shoveling thefood in, and you know, the bell
rings and they're off to thenext with the phone in front of
them.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
Right, you know, and it's funny too, because that's
important for culture to me andthey start to I mean, yeah,
sometimes you might get conflictout of as well, but they start
to congeal, you know, as like,hey, we're all people here, oh,
wait a minute, we're allstudents here.
Oh, we're all Huskies here.
We're all part of this.
(23:45):
So look at that, and that canhelp for that sense of like you
know what they're a part of.
So that is part of the puzzle.
You know one piece of thepuzzle there for helping to
build a culture.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
Yeah, yeah, okay.
So is there anything else thatyou'd like to mention on the
podcast?
Speaker 2 (24:07):
Yes, okay.
So last night I went to thesection championship, right.
I went there and I was veryembarrassed because my children
were cheering for WilliamsvilleSouth.
Oh no, because that, of course,is the school that they're
going to go to.
We live within a half mile ofthat school.
Yes, so I was like fancy, youdon't have to be obnoxious about
(24:31):
it.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
That's right.
Did you make them sit on theother side?
No, no, I had them with me Okay, because we first came in and
we realized quickly we were inthe wrong side of the arena, so
we all moved on the other side.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
I sat behind the bench.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
Yeah, yeah, we were eventually there.
Yeah, First we were on theother side.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
No, last night yeah last night.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
Yeah, we had to get there and I thought he's did a
great job.
They did, they did, they playedwith their heart and they went
out there and they haveabsolutely everything to be
proud of.
They did a great job.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
You know, some of us, the Williamsville players there
was more size there.
Yeah, they were all you know,on the average they were all
taller players.
Yeah, we had a hard, that'sright it definitely.
Then, you know, that causes anuphill battle a little bit, you
know, with the size, pure size.
Then you saw things like, youknow, dwayne Motley, some of the
plays that he made when he wentin and it was, you know, and
(25:26):
he's not super tall but he justlike he's got some skill and he
was also he's driven.
Yeah, he's driven, but yeah, soit's.
But that was.
You know, that was interesting.
But I did it, especiallyVincent, my son Vincent.
He was very, very vocal about,you know, he tried to keep my
(25:48):
hands from clapping when wewould score a basket.
Yeah, if you're like they can'tdo that.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
Like no, you gotta sit over there.
They go to middle middle.
So which is?
Speaker 2 (25:57):
yeah, and they're gonna.
That's Dominic's in sixth gradeand Vincent's in fifth.
Sophia wasn't there.
She's in fifth as well.
Yeah, and so they're gettingready to.
You know, not too much longerThey'll be at the high school,
yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
I tried to engage with Trash talking with the
Williamsville SuperMedics there,oh, good job.
But he has a lot more musclesthan I could even understand.
So he was able to say, no,we're gonna win.
I was like, no, you're not,we're gonna win and it doesn't
matter who wins.
We're Huskies and you willnever be a Husky.
So that was my attempt at Trashtalking.
(26:31):
That's as good as that, Verydignified.
I gotta work on it.
I gotta work.
Speaker 2 (26:38):
Okay, cut your dignity.
That's the, that's theimportant part.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
You're a Husky's in it, okay, well, I appreciate
this.
This has been fantastic.
Thank you so much for joining me on our next
full-length episode of the HuskyTuttle, and I am here with our
assistant principal from thehigh school, jennifer Kalosziska
.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Malop, not bad on the pronunciation.
Thank you, thank you.
So it's a mouthful foreverybody Pałaszńska, pałaszńska
, pałaszńska.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
All right, so tell me a little bit about yourself and
why you are the best Huskydaughter team.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
I don't know if I'd want to claim the title best.
I'm a bit more modest than that, but anyway.
So my background and I knowwhen we did the intros in the
beginning year to the communitysome of this information was in
there, but throwing that backout there, I'm from West Seneca,
new York, borne and Buffalo,and education is actually my
(01:06):
second career.
Although it's been my secondcareer for a long time, it's
still my second career.
I graduated out of KinesiusCollege with an undergrad in
German.
Yes, Konesius, but you can getaway with majoring in German
when you know you're going to becommissioned as an Army officer
.
So I was on the Army ROTCscholarship at Kinesius and was
(01:26):
commissioned as a secondlieutenant in the United States
Army in 1996 and served fiveyears in the regular Army or as
active duty, full-time Army.
There was a point that Idecided to that I wanted to come
back to my hometown in Buffaloand stay in the military in
terms of being in the NationalGuard, which I was in for 12 and
(01:48):
a half years, and then I'vebeen in the reserve since
January 2013,.
I continue to serve and I'm acolonel in the reserves, but I
got into education.
So I went home, got a master'sdegree in history and did my
teaching certifications in thenGerman and soul studies and
worked at the Western New YorkMaritime Charter School.
(02:09):
For a right place, right time,military background, you know.
I ended up there and that'swhere I taught and then worked
my way into administration whileI was there and got my
administrator coursework at BuffState and just worked there for
a number of years and it waskind of a nice environment for
me because I was able to, beinga military environment school.
(02:31):
I was able to blend.
It was an easier transition,you know, from military life to
civilian life when it was like ahalf step transition.
Nonetheless, there were stilltransitions that I had to do in
terms of understanding how onebuilds and sustains culture with
adolescence and youths asopposed to soldiers.
I mean, you know there'ssimilarities yet there's
(02:52):
differences, right One wouldimagine.
So there were some, you know,adjustments that I made in terms
of that career and my careerthere culminated with the, where
I spearheaded the building ofthe middle school project there
from Grant to operating it forfour years and I decided then to
put uniform on again full timefor a couple of years.
(03:12):
So I resigned my position therebecause I didn't want to leave
them short-handed and thencoming off of my active duty
orders and I landed here andonly in.
One of the things that I'vealways done in my, that I've
always been proud of in mymilitary career is the ability
to establish a healthy climateand culture at a unit and
(03:39):
establishing cultures that geartowards everybody understanding
that they're part of that groupand that group is successful and
they want to be part of awinning team.
And that was something I wasalways done pretty well at in
the military.
I was recognized in the NewYork Army National Guard for my
ability to do that when I was incommand in Jamestown and had
(04:03):
was New York State's nominee forthe MacArthur Leadership Award
because of that.
That translated intoeducational leadership,
particularly in my time atmaritime where I had to build an
entire culture from scratch andwe were able to do so in short
order.
And those experiences really iswhat I wanted to bring to bear
here at Olean that ability to toa through proactive, through
(04:28):
present leadership to be able toforge the right path towards a
better culture in the school.
There was a path that I did.
This Now I also taughtCommendant General Staff.
College Sounds fancy, right,kind of like the master's degree
of the Army.
I taught Commendant GeneralStaff College for some time as
well, and a lot of what wetaught because we're teaching in
(04:50):
that course young field gradeofficers, you think about like
captains, like younger captainsand brand new majors we're
teaching them how to do what wecall a paradigm shift, a major
change in how they view theirrole in the Army from that
smaller level Now they'regetting to that organizational
level, leadership level.
So think of it like thedifference between teacher and
(05:11):
now we're getting toadministration or a building
leader, and you have to viewthings differently.
You have to view a much biggerpicture.
You have to understandorganizational dynamics, you
have to understand people, andthis is a lot of what we taught
in that course and that reallytranslates over pretty well into
educational leadership and assuch, then I'd been informed of
(05:36):
what, not only my experiences,but those things that I taught.
There's things out there likethe Cotter organizational change
model and there's all theseother you know four models that
come out of the business worldand such that the military is
using, and you know education,any of these professions you
know, adapt these things, thesemodels and these theories and
leadership into their profession.
(05:57):
And so here I assessed okay, I'mnew to the school and I'm
walking in, right, and actuallyI'm down in Texas when I get the
call, because I was out of townfor a month or so and I'm like,
okay, so I'm new to the school,I'm an outsider, right, I'm not
from the community.
Yes, I'm from Western New York,but I'm not from the community.
Down here in the southern tier,there's long standing ways of
(06:20):
doing things.
This school's been here, youknow, and it's the central
school and it doesn't seem likethe same major flux of the focus
of the community.
The focus of the community hasalways been, okay, there's this
high school, right, right, evenif there's been certain changes
in the community and certainchanges in the high school, it's
always this Right exactly.
And there's staff that havebeen here for a very long time
(06:43):
and some really good staff thathave been here for a very long
time but nonetheless been herefor a very long time.
Long standing ways of doingthings.
And I had come from a verydifferent environment, being in
a military oriented charterschool.
And so I realized, okay, youknow one and I'm the assistant
principal, so I'm not going inas a principal even, and about
(07:04):
one of the worst things you cando, unless, unless some places
in crisis mode, one of the worstthings you can do is like you
can't come in guns ablaze andI'm going to change everything
right away.
And look at me and you justmake it even worse.
So you step back and I startedout by just trying to understand
the goals and intent of MrAndriano and then yourself, you
(07:26):
know what are you trying to,what are your concerns?
What are the long standinggoals?
What are the goals of the board?
And that was, if you recall,those were some of the first
questions I was asking, becauseI wanted to be able to what we
call nesting within.
So I want to like okay, I'mgoing to understand those goals
so I can see what can I do at mylevel to help reinforce those
goals.
It won't be, it might not bethe exact same goals and
(07:48):
certainly won't be the sameactions, but it'll be things
that nest within and supportinto that like pyramid type,
coming to the tip of like hey,this is what brings us all
together.
And this is we're going,focused on the mission of the
school, focused on the vision ofthe school, and then with
different goals and lines ofeffort that feed into that, and
I wanted to understand thatstructure that I was walking
(08:09):
into as much as possible beforeI did anything else.
And then I observed, I learned,I assessed, I was looking back.
What is?
You know?
What did I notice?
What is effective?
What is an effective, whatmight?
What are areas I might want toshake up a little bit, you know
when, when I get enoughcredibility to do so, enough
understanding to do so and thattakes time, typically, even like
(08:36):
in a military command, and Ialways go back onto my military
service, but it really wasfoundational to my professional
life and who I am as an adult.
And even as you come in like acommander to a military unit
again, unless something's incrisis mode or you're in some
high-tempo environment orsomething, generally speaking,
you take about the first threemonths.
(08:57):
You don't do any major policychanges, right, and that is in
an environment where you onlyhave so much in time and command
, you know.
So it's the same here.
I'm not, I'm trying to just seewhat's going on, not trying to
make too many changes, trying toget my face out there, being
present, being around thebuilding, talking to people.
I'm not just observingpassively.
(09:17):
I'm engaging with students.
I'm engaging with staff aroundthe building.
I'm engaging with not justteachers.
I'm engaging with aides.
I'm engaging with cafeteriastaff.
I'm engaging with themaintenance.
I'm talking to people that Iprobably not even used to being
talked to very often,particularly by the school
administration.
I talked to everybody.
(09:37):
It was like and that was how Idid with the military I talked
to privates I talked to.
I was always a very presentleader like that and that was
part of my ability to assess andlearn was through that just all
the time, as much as I possiblycould be in being around the
building, understanding whatconcerns are, gathering ideas
and, quite frankly, building acoalition.
(09:59):
So what you want to do is andthat sounds like that could be
misconstrued like, oh, you'regoing to lead a coup or
something right.
So building the coalition is tounderstand who in the building
can be an agent for positivechange and who in the building
(10:19):
is open to these processes andwho in the building could be
cheerleaders for differentinitiatives that are as long as
those initiatives are thoughtout well and as long as they
make sense, and that kind ofthing.
But different people thatyou're like OK, well, these are
people that are going to whenI'm not in the room.
They might be like hey, thatwas a really good idea that they
(10:42):
did, or that's hey, thisstuff's going well and
understanding those dynamicsaround the building and in the
organization and that's part ofbuilding that coalition
understanding.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
Has that been difficult?
Speaker 2 (10:56):
No.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
OK.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
No, I don't think so.
There was a number of peoplethat were.
I've gotten a lot of goodfeedback from various staff and
I know that there's even beentimes where I sat down with one
teacher and I helped them workthrough a conflict they had with
(11:18):
a student.
They're like, wow, nobody'sever done that exactly that way
with me before.
I was like, well, it can workif the students open to it and
willing to be part of thatactively and such and different
sides.
No, I'm not as hard as youwould think, but then again,
we're also starting small.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
So but hopefully those people who are part of
that coalition can share withothers, right yeah, fact of it
is.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Exactly how to inspire others to join Exactly
In terms of like, hey, let's geton board and let's train move
in.
These are some things that wecan do, and to do that, a lot of
times you want to generate whatwe call grabbing the low
hanging fruit.
So, are there things that needto be improved that can, with a
few couple tweaks, can maybe beimproved pretty readily, yeah,
(12:13):
and are they likely to besuccessful?
Right, and if you can generatethose short-term goals that you
can accomplish and shownear-term victories, that helps
strengthen and build thatcoalition right, and it gives
people confidence in what'shappening.
And then they feel like thatcan help with morale and it
(12:34):
feels like, hey, things aremoving and you know a better
direction here, a betterdirection there.
And that was part of what I had,you know it focused on.
And that's when I, you knowI've done things where I saw
there was because too manystudents in the hall.
Yeah, yeah, all right.
What are some things we can dowithin normal?
You know, I completely.
You know run-of-the-mill schoolkind of Pass control, like
(12:56):
things that we, you know anyschool, would do.
How can we tighten that up tohelp this issue, to make some of
the environment better?
And you know so we executed onthat In the January time frame
and you know, I know some ofparents in the community and
stuff remember when we pushedout hey, these are some things
we're doing here because we wantto tighten some things up.
That's what that was about, andabout making sure, trying to
(13:19):
help have students in the classmore often and you know not not
in the hallways and more bettersafety and better control, and
it's not that hard to do.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
Yeah, yeah, it was that hard to get across.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
I don't think it was really hard to get across.
There is a certain segment ofstudents who don't like that.
They're a little morerestricted.
I think there's more studentsthat Would like to be a little
bit less restricted, but they goalong because they're good
students and then, and then theyrealize, oh, wait a minute, oh,
I mean, maybe this isn't so bad, yeah, and then, of course, you
(13:56):
know I mean.
But there is a small segment ofstudents who's who have other
difficulties as well, who youknow.
Anytime their question like,hey, do you have a pass or where
were you supposed to be?
They get defensive about it.
Yeah, you know, which is partof why I put in the the training
that I had asked the firstperiod teachers to do across the
building when we were rollingthis out to the students, one of
(14:16):
the bullets I put in there islike teachers, you know students
, part of your responsibility isunderstanding that teachers
should be questioning whereyou're supposed to be and that
there's no reason to getdefensive about it.
You know, yeah, and but thereare, you know, certain segment
of students that I think youknow because they've had
difficulties in school for years.
Probably they get defensivebecause, well, they're always
(14:39):
garnering a little bit negativeintention, unfortunately.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Yeah, I wonder if they ever had it explained to
them.
This is the dynamic, and here'swhy I wonder if this is true
the first time.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
And I and I've done you know when I, when I do the,
I do my best to try to make surethe students understand.
Yeah, and they may not be evenreceptive at that moment.
Sometimes I follow up like, hey,remember, when I was talking to
you, you got the detention.
(15:11):
Yeah, do you understand why?
And then when I'm like, well,no, not really, I will, let's
talk about that real quick.
You know we're, let's walk andtalk, I gotta go to the next kid
.
I try to do that as much as Ican and I, you know, I think
part of that's because that'swhat my parents did with me.
Yeah, yeah, and they were.
(15:35):
I Remember, like my dad told methat when I was very little, if
I got a, I was very stubbornand Very headstrong little kid
and that, like you know, if hegave me a little smack on the
butt, I would just look at himwith this like look up like you
know, like this, yeah, like.
And he thought, oh, that doesn'twork.
(15:55):
Uh, it worked with my olderbrother, doesn't work with me,
yeah, so you know.
And they said, oh, but when weexplain something to you, this
is why you'd be like, oh, okay.
Yeah you know.
So maybe that partly influencedwhy you know I know what I do
here is In terms of trying toexplain that to the students.
I trying to communicate theseincremental changes to parents,
(16:18):
staff, students attain thoseshort-term progress and then
continue to be present as leader, taking an interest in students
and staff, while promotingaccountability, being out and
about.
I told you that sometimes it'sthings I would like to look at
more and I can't because I'vegot to focus on helping to build
that culture out in thebuilding and that takes time,
(16:40):
but I think it's important andtrying to get the culture onto
the track that we want, whereit's a culture focused on
classroom learning ultimately,and being part of that.
If you don't have that in place, all the other initiatives that
you might possibly try they'regonna have limited effectiveness
.
You've got to get those basicsdown to make sure that you have
(17:05):
a well-functioning schoolfocused on the classroom and
being in the classroom to beable to then bring things to the
next level, because otherwiseyou'll be spinning your wheels
and that's why culture was a bigfocus and I know that's a lot
of what I talked about when Icame in and the interviews and
such.
So I've been doing my besttrying to do that.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
I don't wanna continue to try to do that Well
it brings me back and that's apast snake, and it's good to
hear kind of the thought processbehind it, because when this is
shared then people realize it'spart of a larger systemic
effort and it's not just workingfrom the gut, it's just look,
(17:44):
we're trying to set these thingsin place so that we have a safe
, high performing schoolenvironment for our students and
staff.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
And I think sometimes that, yes, my military
background definitely influencedme, but it has been tailored
appropriately to the world ofeducation and it's not about
being controlling.
It's not about, oh, I'm gonnaexercise military discipline or
(18:16):
anything like that.
It's about trying to set thebest environment for the
students so they have the bestopportunity for success in their
lives, because, for them to besuccessful, their job here is to
learn.
Above all, their job is to learn, be able to set themselves and
learning, not just the reading,writing, arithmetic, as we say,
(18:37):
but learning how to properlyfunction within a democratic,
republican society, whichrequires an active, educated
populace.
To vote intelligently, however,it is that they will vote but
to be engaged and to be goodcitizens and understand how a
society should function well.
These are things they shouldknow for our country to continue
(18:58):
on which, I will admit, this ispart of my driver.
I have a deep love, as one ofyour imagine, for my country and
for my community, and having awell-functioning schools is
vital to sustaining those things, and we all make mistakes along
the way students, staff,administrators.
(19:19):
We all make mistakes along theway trying to do that.
But that focus is really to tryto get improve our community,
improve our country by makingsuccess possible for the
students as best as we can.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
And then it's a key function of public education
here.
Absolutely right, it's getcornerstone to prepare our next
wave of populace for that hugerole of sustaining the politics
I was gonna ask.
So we got feedback from a lotof parents who wanted a lot of
(19:58):
things like additional things inplace to help ensure the safety
of the students in the building.
Have you had any tension fromthose parents who don't quite
understand what we're doingsystemically to address their
concerns but also to make surethat it's done equitably and
(20:20):
it's done in a way that is fairand it's also in alignment with
our policies and expectations ofthe building?
Speaker 2 (20:27):
So generally not Generally there's not really
been pushback.
There was a gentleman who askedfor an audience just to get
some more clarification.
When I explained to him whatthe intent was behind, he's like
oh, that makes sense and that'sexactly what you should be
doing.
There have been a couple ofinstances, say for cell phones,
(20:52):
where and I would imagine, maybethe parents are younger and
they're used to, you know, theymay have had phones from an
earlier age as well and they'reused to having that ability to
have their children right therewith the phone and it just seems
(21:13):
second nature to always have aphone with them.
And sometimes if their studentgot you know, just fun for like,
oh yeah, they had their phoneduring the day, so they're going
to have a detention.
Sometimes in that conversationthe parents would be like, well,
and you hear them question alittle bit, and I think that is,
you know, there is a certainlevel of generational thing to
(21:34):
that.
Yeah, I mean, you know, when Iwent to high school there was
one pay phone.
Yeah, right, or you could go tothe office and use it, or to
the office, right.
And when we were, you know,growing up, we would, you know,
go out from.
You know dawn until dusk andyou know actually come back for
dinner or something, and whenthe street light Right and then
(21:56):
nobody can, nobody is contactingyou at all and you used to have
to use the pay phone to try,hey, I need a ride.
And that was so.
I think there is.
You know there is a little bitof a generational difference in
terms of what they're used to,but the research really shows
and in my personal experience ofthe years of maritime, it's
better not having the cellphones for the students for
multiple reasons, and I knowthere was a number of parents in
(22:16):
the community that they wantedthat as well.
And it does and it's, you know,it's funny about that from you
know what I'd heard, beenhearing.
You heard it from students aswell.
Sometimes they're reluctant toadmit it, but they're like it's
really better.
I wish I had my phone, but it'sbetter in the classroom, right
(22:37):
In the classroom, we're not,people aren't pulling the phones
out all the time and getting onthem and distracting the class
or distracting themselves, andthen students are actually
talking with each other more.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
Right, especially at lunch, right Like everybody
talks about.
That's just been the greatequalizer in the cell phone
policy that you can go to lunchand you can observe students
talking with their peers, withtheir friends and with staff
that are in the morning, andbefore that was not happening at
(23:09):
all, so it's good to see thatit's before.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
it looked like a Starbucks or something.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
Yeah, where everybody's hunched over a
device, kind of shoveling thefood in, and you know, the bell
rings and they're off to thenext with the phone in front of
them.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
Right, you know, and it's funny too, because that's
important for culture to me andthey start to I mean, yeah,
sometimes you might get conflictout of as well, but they start
to congeal, you know, as like,hey, we're all people here, oh,
wait a minute, we're allstudents here.
Oh, we're all Huskies here.
We're all part of this.
(23:45):
So look at that, and that canhelp for that sense of like you
know what they're a part of.
So that is part of the puzzle.
You know one piece of thepuzzle there for helping to
build a culture.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
Yeah, yeah, okay.
So is there anything else thatyou'd like to mention on the
podcast?
Speaker 2 (24:07):
Yes, okay.
So last night I went to thesection championship, right.
I went there and I was veryembarrassed because my children
were cheering for WilliamsvilleSouth.
Oh no, because that, of course,is the school that they're
going to go to.
We live within a half mile ofthat school.
Yes, so I was like fancy, youdon't have to be obnoxious about
(24:31):
it.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
That's right.
Did you make them sit on theother side?
No, no, I had them with me Okay, because we first came in and
we realized quickly we were inthe wrong side of the arena, so
we all moved on the other side.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
I sat behind the bench.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
Yeah, yeah, we were eventually there.
Yeah, First we were on theother side.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
No, last night yeah last night.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
Yeah, we had to get there and I thought he's did a
great job.
They did, they did, they playedwith their heart and they went
out there and they haveabsolutely everything to be
proud of.
They did a great job.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
You know, some of us, the Williamsville players there
was more size there.
Yeah, they were all you know,on the average they were all
taller players.
Yeah, we had a hard, that'sright it definitely.
Then, you know, that causes anuphill battle a little bit, you
know, with the size, pure size.
Then you saw things like, youknow, dwayne Motley, some of the
plays that he made when he wentin and it was, you know, and
(25:26):
he's not super tall but he justlike he's got some skill and he
was also he's driven.
Yeah, he's driven, but yeah, soit's.
But that was.
You know, that was interesting.
But I did it, especiallyVincent, my son Vincent.
He was very, very vocal about,you know, he tried to keep my
(25:48):
hands from clapping when wewould score a basket.
Yeah, if you're like they can'tdo that.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
Like no, you gotta sit over there.
They go to middle middle.
So which is?
Speaker 2 (25:57):
yeah, and they're gonna.
That's Dominic's in sixth gradeand Vincent's in fifth.
Sophia wasn't there.
She's in fifth as well.
Yeah, and so they're gettingready to.
You know, not too much longerThey'll be at the high school,
yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
I tried to engage with Trash talking with the
Williamsville SuperMedics there,oh, good job.
But he has a lot more musclesthan I could even understand.
So he was able to say, no,we're gonna win.
I was like, no, you're not,we're gonna win and it doesn't
matter who wins.
We're Huskies and you willnever be a Husky.
So that was my attempt at Trashtalking.
(26:31):
That's as good as that, Verydignified.
I gotta work on it.
I gotta work.
Speaker 2 (26:38):
Okay, cut your dignity.
That's the, that's theimportant part.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
You're a Husky's in it, okay, well, I appreciate
this.
This has been fantastic.
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