Roosevelt welcomes third principal in three years.
Following the departure of former Principal HkwauaQueJol Hollins in January comes his replacement: Principal Tami Brewer, previous assistant principal at Ingraham High School.
Within the Roosevelt High School community, the administrative staff has drastically shifted over the past few years. Kristina Rodgers, who currently works at Bainbridge High School, served as Roosevelt’s principal and other administrative positions for 11 years before stepping down to be replaced by Hollins for the 2021-22 school year.
Administration plays a big role in daily student and teacher life, though not one always seen, implementing the rules of how Roosevelt functions as a school. Administration works with the student body to provide the necessary resources we need and address problems within Roosevelt’s community.
Within the assistant principal department, only Roy Merca remains from the previous cabinet of 2021-22. New to Roosevelt, Assistant Principals Rachel Langness and Maggie Mattmiller will be working alongside Merca this year.
Merca said, “I’m excited to work with Tami with the direction she’s moving towards… We’re working on making sure we’re closing the achievement gap, which is very important with this community because from the past five years I’ve been here, the demographics have changed.”
Langness said, “I would love to see a warm and welcoming environment for all students, regardless of background, race, ethnicity, or gender. I’d also love to see that it’s not so much a change as a development of best practices for everybody on campus and helping students invest in their learning,”
There are different factors impacting Roosevelt’s administration as well as nationwide education. Mattmiller said, “I don’t know the details. I could guess there’s been a lot of change nationwide in education, burnout things.”
Within the assistant principal department specifically, there are more personal reasons behind why the turnover in that area occurred. Merca commented, “Last year, Mr. Kelly couldn’t finish the year, he went on medical leave and Ms. Proctor went on to transfer to Nathan Hale. So I’m the lone survivor from when I first came here.”
The lack of stability within Roosevelt’s administration affects students and staff in building relationships and having a sense of predictability. Mattmiller comments, “I think the school culture is stronger when there’s stability because there’s predictability, people know what to expect.”
She also adds, “I do feel like it’s probably hard for student and staff because three of the four of us are new, we have to learn how it’s been in order to see what’s next and it would have been nicer for folks if we came in and already knew, we could just hit the ground running.” Langness adds to this idea, “I believe that consistency can really help develop community and meaningful relationships with the entire educational community and we are a team.”
Brewer shared her experience within Roosevelt and her plans going into the future, “The question is: In what ways are we going to change? I definitely have a vision; … its foundation is in systems of support, healthy school climate, safety, social, emotional, physical, and getting that stabilized here then moving ahead on other sorts of trends, instructional design and creative approaches to learning.”
Brewer hopes to bring a new approach to learning at Roosevelt, “If we’re not changing, we’re not growing. If we’re not growing, we’re not learning.”
Initial policy changes include a shift in collecting information and incident reports from students. Before Hollins left Roosevelt, he put “Roosevelt Reports” boxes into place. These boxes would allow for written reports to be submitted to Roosevelt staff. The report boxes are currently being taken down with the plan of going more digital. Brewer said, “The credibility, the accountability, that keeps a timestamp and can track this and even open up communications lines as we move ahead.”
Mattmiller talked about district policies versus ones considered to be more specific to Roosevelt, “A lot of our policies are district policies. So I would say anything that’s a district policy obviously has to continue,” also adding that, “There are some little, what I would consider maybe more nuanced things that we as an admin team are learning like what has been the practice here and what do we want to carry forward.”
Bridging communication between students and administration is a big priority. Langness hopes to solve this issue digitally, “My goal as somebody who’s working on our communication is to open up different avenues of social media for Roosevelt that are a little more accessible for our students.”
Currently, Roosevelt has a weekly electronic newsletter being sent to families and staff
Brewer talks about further expanding electronic communication to improve accessibility, “Talking Points is a tool that is kind of bubbled up for parents where you can send messages right to a parent’s cell phones; I would love to see that in also the students’ world. … I think that’s where this generation will live, breathe and operate and we should be using modern communication as best we can.”
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