Mr. Paul, former assistant principal, recently received the role of Assistant to the Superintendent for Administration. “With Ms. Shirken moving into a part-time position, the opportunity presented itself for me to make the transition to the business office.” As the Assistant to the Superintendent, Mr. Paul is in charge of various aspects of the school. His responsibilities, along with Ms. Shirken, is to oversee all financial and budgetary aspects of the school district.
His current role is very different from his past roles as a math teacher and assistant principal. There are many aspects of his previous roles that Mr. Paul enjoyed: “As an assistant principal, much of the day is spent dealing with the immediate: a student emergency, a teacher's request, a discipline issue, etc. The focus of these areas was always human. Although the work completed in my new role serves these same individuals, the job is more task-oriented.” He continued, “As a teacher first and assistant principal later, I had so many opportunities to interact with students daily. You're the reason why I chose to work in education. My new role doesn't provide the same level of student interaction.”
With this new role came some surprises. He describes, “I was prepared for the scope of work to be vast, but the variety of topics I deal with daily far exceeds what I had anticipated. Whether it be financial reporting to the state, budgeting, payroll, human resources, approving requisitions, working with our district's attorneys, collaborating with administrators, financial forecasting, resolving unemployment requests, capital projects, negotiations with bargaining units, resolving property tax disputes, etc, some constellation comes together to make up the daily work.” Despite the many unexpected situations that Mr. Paul has had to overcome within the past few months, he enjoys the challenge each day brings. “Every day has presented new challenges for me, has forced me to increase my knowledge, and required me to look at issues from a different angle.”
Mr. Paul also reflected on his departure from the dynamic duo of the principal and other assistant principal. Mr. Paul shared, “As for not working as closely with Mr. Hosier and Ms. Johnson, it's a little weird. I see them regularly on district-wide meetings, and we still collaborate on a variety of topics, but not having the same level of daily interactions with them, and the rest of the EHS staff, does leave a void.” Although we will miss this iconic group, we look forward to their collaboration with the new assistant principal, Ms. Joseph.
On his various roles at Edgemont, Mr. Paul reflects, “It feels incredibly fast, and yet as though I was teaching such a long time ago. Each new role, whether it be as department chair, assistant principal, or in my current position, the transition has brought a new level of expectation and work commitment, but also great joy. Without the joy in what I do, I don't think that the work would be sustainable, nor would have the quick transitions been appealing.” Each role has allowed Mr. Paul to learn new skills and to serve the Edgemont community in different but vital roles.