My birthday this year started out like many of my previous ones. Some of my best friends from my neighborhood in Coppell took me out to lunch to celebrate.
For most of us, birthdays are really just an excuse to take time out of our hectic lives to get together so we often say no gifts, although funny cards are great! Two of my craziest friends – Carol and Diane – did not listen. They always seem to have something up their sleeves!
Here I am celebrating my 48th birthday and they’re asking me if my three teen-age sons sometimes think that they’re smarter than me, or that I’m not doing anything all that important as a “stay-at-home” mom.
Actually, my boys are pretty good kids and they don’t say too much to offend me, but every once in a great while it slips out that they are smarter than me or that their dad is the smartest of all (and he probably is).
My two friends said the gift they were going to give would indeed change everything and how my boys viewed me. My curiosity was about to explode as I looked at the lovely gift bag.
In it I pulled out a framed photo that read, “Be the Principal for a day at Coppell High School!”
I started laughing and said they were very funny and that this was so silly and could not possibly be for real.
But they said, “No. This is for real! We bought this at a fundraising auction and you get to be the Coppell High School Principal for a day!”
Right now, I only have one son who attends CHS and he’s a sophomore. My oldest graduated from CHS in 2008 and my youngest will enter CHS in the fall as a freshman so I’m a little over half way through my nine-year career as a CHS parent.
My friends were asking what I thought my middle son would think. He’s pretty laid back, yet focused on his goals and a “cool drummer.”
I think it is a go. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity. Even better would be to not tell my son that he would have a new principal for a day!
Now I know that to step into Mr. Brad Hunt’s shoes for a day is truly a daunting task! I know him already and he has the reputation of being an awesome principal.
I have chatted with him on several occasions, including St. Patrick’s Day when he and his lovely wife and several of us CHS band parents watched the band march down Fifth Avenue in New York for the parade.
After shooting a few emails back and forth, Mr. Hunt and I agreed on a day that would be good for me to be the principal of Coppell High School.
On that day I waited until Tyler, my son who attends CHS, left the house before I made my way over to CHS for my adventure. Mr. Hunt greeted me in his usual friendly manner and asked me if there were things in particular I wanted to do.
Mostly, I just wanted to follow him around and see what he did all day, but I had a few things I wanted to do.
Of course, first at hand was to call my son down to the office to inform him of the great news that he would have a new principal for the day.
The most surprising part of the day for me was to see what a revolving door the principal’s office had. A revolving door for CHS’ finest students!!
Now when I grew up, the last place you wanted to go was the principal’s office, and if you were called there, you were probably in some kind of trouble.
Quite the opposite was true here. Now, of course, at CHS the assistant principals handle most of the discipline problems and that’s probably why visitors to Mr. Hunt’s office seemed to be skewed in favor of such awesome students!
No wonder he loves his job!
Tyler heard my voice as he was making his way through the herd of students who were called to the office to get their “I Rock CHS” t-shirts after being nominated by a faculty member for doing such things as serving as peer tutors for special needs students, winning at a state art contest and participating in the mock trial.
So when Tyler walked into the office and saw me sitting in the principal’s chair, all he could say was “How did this happen?”
When I asked him who were my craziest friends and he replied, “Mrs. Tuohy and Mrs. Gasparro,” I didn’t need to say any more.
Next on my agenda was having some fun with the one CHS faculty member who I’ve probably dealt with most in my years as a CHS parent.
You see, ever since my oldest son started doing band and then my middle son continued that tradition, our lives have totally revolved around the band.
I had Mr. Hunt deliver the news to head band director Scott Mason that there was a problem with him using the auditorium for the band’s Spring Concert next week.
I don’t think Mr. Mason really believed he would have to have the spring concert out on the football field with band members in their formal concert attire, although the band is always wanting more stadium time than it gets during the marching season.
As soon as Mr. Mason found that it was I – the longtime band parent who works diligently to publicize all the great happenings of the band – who was the principal, he tried to capitalize and requested an $80,000 increase in the band budget for next year!
I can’t say I blame him…but it was all fun.
Later, I got to meet the eight “Students of the Month” for April and be in utter amazement of the 2009 CHS valedictorian Chanhwa Hong and salutatorian Whitney Sun who met with Mr. Hunt (and myself, of course) to discuss graduation.
Teacher and staff evaluations went on throughout the day and I got to sit in on a few of them, including one for Active Learning Center teacher Eileen Higgins and librarian Michael Cooke.
I also watched as another teacher signed her resignation papers – a move she chose so she could reflect on how she wanted to continue with her career now that she had obtained her master’s degree.
Between evaluations, I decided Mr. Hunt needed to expand his horizons a bit. Since band has been a major force in the Murray family for the last five years, I thought I’d share some of that joy with him.
And Tyler certainly wouldn’t mind getting out of class for a short time to give his regular principal a drum lesson.
Mr. Hunt was a good sport as he slipped on the harness to hold the tenor, or quad drums, used for marching. He said he had a new respect for the students marching around playing those drums.
It was Teacher Appreciation Week and I got to choose the numbers for the drawing of teachers’ names who would win prizes donated by local businesses and then I got to see the excited faces of the teachers who came to the office to claim their prizes.
I ended my day as principal by attending a beautiful reception in the library to celebrate the careers of teachers Toni Ascher, Sandra Green and Gloria Perry who will retire at the school year’s end.
I came in already believing that Mr. Hunt was a great principal, but I left knowing first-hand that he is and I feel very blessed to have my children attend a school where he is at the helm.
One of my favorite parts about being principal was walking the hallways during the passing periods and watching Mr. Hunt interact with the students.
He makes the school seem smaller than it is with its 2,800 students and 250 faculty and staff members. I couldn’t believe the number of students whom he knew by name. He said he really tries to learn students’ names, but, of course, he knows the seniors better as they have been around longest.
Terry Phillips, who has worked for more than five years with Mr. Hunt including time at Coppell Middle School West and the three years he’s been at CHS, explained why she thought Mr. Hunt was such a great principal.
“Mr. Hunt reminds all of us every day that we’re here for the students and he is a leading example of that. He keeps us all young and energized,” she said.
One of the teachers told me that the reason he’s such a great principal is that he listens. He listens to students. He listens to teachers. And yes, he even listens to parents who come in to take over for the day as principal.
You were part of one of my most memorable birthday gifts ever!
Thanks, Mr. Hunt! And keep up the good work!
