“There’s an impetus right now for change,” Manuel said. “I’m so excited, because people know that whether it’s me or somebody else they have to change and the school has to change.”
Manuel said that while he’s only been on campus for a couple of days, he’s already feeling good about his colleagues and the direction the school is going to go.
“I’ve found people over the past couple of days who have told me, ‘Look, the school has a lot of issues, but I would like to innovate, I have ideas,’” he said. “I’ve had two or three people tell me they have proposals for things students could do, and I’m excited about that.”
Part of the transition will be fueled by a principal who seems to have boundless energy and plans to spend as much of his day out of his office and in the rest of the school as possible.
“I don’t see how you can be a leader in the school and not be visible,” he said. “My goal is to make this into a small place. There should not be one kid in this building who doesn’t feel like there are people here who don’t know what’s going on in his or her world. Right now, there’s 2,400 kids in this school. There are kids who might be depressed; there are kids who might be pregnant; there are kids whose parents might be going through some issues; there are kids whose neighborhoods are going through issues, and they might not have any adults in this school who know about it or can identify with it. My goal is to change that.”
Gretzinger said he expects Manuel will find his footing quickly.
“He brings back to Kingston everything that we’re trying to do,” Gretzinger said. “We’ve been working for the past year and a half on developing smaller learning communities in the high school, and that’s something Adrian has done. I’m very confident that he’s going to be successful.”
Nice portrait. I wish him much success.
Wow! Best of luck to you Mr. Manuel! KHS needs someone who is not afraid of that scary word ‘change’.