Dennis Lepold, the new principal at Grover Middle School, has all the credentials you would expect from a top administrator in a district like West Windsor-Plainsboro: former high school teacher, coach, and former assistant principal at High School South, where he worked until his appointment to the Grover job last month.##M:[more]##
But he also has one other line item on his resume that you might not expect: School bus driver, an experience he gained working for his mother’s school bus company in his hometown of Hamilton.
Lepold doesn’t expect to get behind the wheel of a school bus anytime soon, but he does know that the job of school principal is filled with the unexpected. “The job is not just from September to June, and it’s not a job that ends at 3 p.m.,” says Lepold, in response to a question about why it’s sometimes difficult to fill school administrative positions. “It’s nice to be able to leave school at 3 p.m. and only have some papers to grade and some E-mail to answer. But the principal has to worry about who’s coming in that night to use the school. A lot of people don’t want the responsibility and liability of running a school.
“And if something happens between two students, or if the standardized test scores aren’t as high as people expected, then that’s associated with your name,” he says.
Lepold, appointed to the $132,”000 a year position at the August 28 meeting of the School Board, succeeds Steve Mayer, who was promoted to replace Victoria Kniewel as assistant superintendent for instruction and curriculum after Kniewel was named superintendent (The News, September 7).
The new principal got to work within a half hour of the board’s vote that night. “I got a phone call from Steve notifying me of the decision,” Lepold recalls. “Then he said I needed to have two letters ready by morning,” one welcoming the staff back and another one for the parents of the students.
On top of that, Mayer told Lepold that he had better attend the 10 a.m. ice cream social the next day, welcoming new students and their parents. The first night was a long night for Lepold. “I don’t think I ever labored so hard over two letters.”
Raised in Hamilton Township, Lepold’s mother ran Jody’s School Bus Company and his father was a draftsman for Princeton Applied Research, which operated at the site on Roszel Road in West Windsor that is now home to Tyco. He attended Nottingham High School, graduated from the Pennington School, Class of 1987, and then earned a degree in English and secondary education at Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania.
He started teaching 10th and 11th grade English at Nottingham, and then moved to South Hunterdon High School in Lambertville, where he also coached basketball and soccer. He met some people from West Windsor-Plainsboro while taking a graduate course, and came to the district in 2000 as a language arts teacher. In the 2002-’03 year, when South principal Michael Carr retired, Lepold was named assistant principal to replace Charles Rudnick, who was appointed to replace Carr.
Like a lot of assistant principals, Lepold quickly became known as the disciplinarian. “It’s a tradition,” says Lepold. “The principal’s role is more the leadership role. The assistant principal is more management, and one of the things that comes into that is attendance and discipline.”
That turns out to be a relatively small part of the job. “We are very fortunate in WW-P to have good students with supportive parents. Most of the kids are in school for all the right reasons,” says Lepold. But the assistant principal also is in charge of the custodial staff, special education and life skills, and — more important than you might first think — the parking lot and the parking lottery to see who does and does not get the coveted spots.
“At one point the assistant principal is going to find himself having to be everywhere at once,” says Lepold. “I’ve always said that you should talk to the assistant principal to find out the pulse at the high school.”
The middle school level, says Lepold, “is not just a junior version of high school. At the middle school you are looking closely at the emotional needs of students, as well as their intellectual needs.” Bullying, ridicule, and other unchecked misbehavior can cause a kid who comes into the school enthusiastic and excited to leave three years later discouraged at the prospects of moving on to high school, says Lepold.
For Lepold’s own mental health he follows a fairly regular exercise regimen, working out at Gold’s Gym, and also hiking and kayaking when possible. “I used to work out at South, but you couldn’t really get away from the problems of the job. You couldn’t really focus.”
One way for parents to reduce stress, says Lepold, is to gather as much information as they can before jumping to conclusions. A resident of Lawrence Township, Lepold has two elementary age children of his own. His wife is a New York commuter, working for American Express. When the kids come home from school with some apparently disconcerting news, says Lepold, “I always tell my wife to remember that you are only hearing one side of the story.”
At Grover, he says, the expectations are high for everyone. “The foundation for High School South’s success,” Lepold says, “is built at Grover Middle School.” Lepold is eager to jump in where needed, even if it means getting behind the wheel of a school bus.
Other Promotions
Last month the Board of Education also announced the appointment of Patricia Buell as the new assistant principal at Maurice Hawk School, replacing Judith Petry, who retired after 12 years of service. Buell had been the elementary resource specialist for exceptionality and previously had been interim assistant principal at Village School.
The search for a new assistant principal at High School South is expected to begin next week.
