As we celebrate the 100 day milestone of Principal DeLuga joining the Duke community, the spotlight also shines on two other important administrators in their first 100 days in new a position. In addition to a new principal, York has gained fresh sets of eyes, insight and innovative minds in new Assistant Principal for Student Services, Ms. DeLaRosa, as well as new Assistant Principal for Curriculum and Instruction, Mr. Doherty.

York-hi sat down with new members of our new administrative team to see how their first 100 days are going.

Mrs.  Erin DeLuga, our principal, shares and reflects on all the events, challenges and future plans for the upcoming semester.

Q: What do you think is the most unique part about York?

A: What’s really blown me over from the very beginning or school–but even in July–is the sense of family, that’s part of York High School and  the whole District. The school spirit is also unmatched. That’s been the most unique part so far.

Q: What is your favorite memory so far?

A: I have two. The first is my first home football game. It was just incredible to see the school spirit in action. I loved seeing the band and how supportive the students were of one another, as well as the parents and community coming out and support the game. On Fridays, the stadium was packed, there’s tailgating and all kinds of fun things for kids. The other one was the event in volleyball that was thrown for Mrs. Trent’s daughter. I thought that event really showed a different side of school spirit dedicated to loss. When Mrs. Trent came in and talked about Anna, everybody in the whole gym was just in awe of her strength and courage. I thought that was a real sign of how much we can all support each other and rely on each other in a time of sadness or crisis.

Q: What do you think is the most challenging part about being a principal?

A: I think it’s balancing the needs of the students–which is my first priority–with the need of parents and the community. It’s very hard to make everybody happy all the time. Although the students are my first priority.

Q: What do you spend the most time doing during the school day?

A: I spend a lot of time either talking with individual teachers, in meetings, or departments, discussing how to improve student learning and student growth. We talk a lot about curriculum and instruction. Mr. Doherty is a huge part of that as well, but that is just one component. The other is getting into classrooms. I do like to be in classrooms whether it’s through the formal observation cycles for teachers,  just informally popping in, being invited up to student council, or to a class that has something neat going on. I’ve always really maintained my roots as a full time classroom teacher, even when I became an assistant principal.

Q: Have you incorporated any of your S.T.E.M. interests while here?

A: I just presented at the board of education last night about what S.T.E.M. programming can look like in a comprehensive high school. I talked about some of the innovative things going on here. One example is Dominic Conversa, a junior here, created his own app that was actually taken on by Apple. I explained that that is the reason why we need courses like app development. We need courses like incubator lab mobile makers and all those types of things to be built in for students who want to access those really innovative jobs and careers outside of high school. I also met with College of DuPage to talk about how we can do dual credit with them in high school, so students can earn college credit from there here, before they go wherever after.

Q: How do you deal with the stress of being principal?

A: We try to teach this to students, and it’s hard for students to live it because you guys are under so much pressure. I believe in a work and real life balance. I try to live and model this for our teachers and staff because I have two kids and they’re little. There are times when I need to go back and get them for an event or something like that. I really want people to know that I value the components of work and family equally so that people can feel like they have that flexibility to live their lives but also be really good at their jobs. If you’re stressed out and burned out, then you’re not going to do what’s best for students in the school, you’re not going to be taking care of yourself, so that’s the manta I try to keep in mind.

Q: Do you have any exciting plans for next semester?

A:  School spirit is so phenomenal all throughout homecoming, and then some of it shifts away. The Kindness Matters campaign has kind of started to bring it back, but we wanted to make all that happen for the spring. This occurred with the whole happenings in the election and some of the reactions afterwards. We are going to try to bring it all together in the spring and then have some great school spirited events for our students.

Ms. Melissa DeLaRosa, assistant principal for student services, brings many different experiences and skills to our school community as well.

Q: What are a few fun facts about yourself?

A: I was voted “Most Involved” in high school, and in college I studied abroad in Australia. I also had the chance to travel to Singapore and Thailand. I majored in Finance and worked for Merrill Lynch before changing to a career in education, and started working in schools as a school psychologist.  I am also currently working toward earning a doctorate degree.

Q: What is your favorite memory so far?

A: My favorite memory is from Freshman Night in August. This was the first time I was able to experience first-hand the incredible school spirit at York. I loved the energy and excitement as the current students, including the King/Queen of the Couch groups, cheered as the incoming freshmen and their families arrived. I could tell already that York has a welcoming culture with a ton of positivity.

Q: What do you spend the most time doing during the school day?

A: I spend the majority of my day working with colleagues, families, and students to make sure that all students have the ability to learn and grow at York. Sometimes this means finding ways to impact the whole school or large groups of students, and sometimes this means providing supports for students in small groups or individually.

Q: What is the best part of your school day?

A: The best part of my day is when I get to see all of the amazing work that students do inside and outside of their classrooms! I love visiting many different classes or activities after school to have the chance to celebrate all of our students’ dedication and talent. I am always learning something new from the York students.

Q: Do you have any exciting plans for the next semester?

A: This semester, I have been working with teams at York to get to know all of the great programs that we have in place to support students and the overall school climate. Next semester I am looking forward to continuing to collaborate with those teams to make plans for how to continue to build our services for students.

Mr. Ryan Doherty, assistant principal for curriculum and instruction. He uses his creativity and English background to bring success to students and teachers.

Q: What is the most unique part about York?

A: Well, I went to high school here, so it’s very different from when I was here. Honestly, the most unique part is how compliant the kids are. Sometimes people focus on ‘Oh there was an issue here, there’s an issue there,’ but in general, it’s a super compliant building, and, a lot of people that come here say that as well.

Q: What is your favorite memory?

A: I miss the English staff a lot. It was great to be upstairs for a little bit because in that big office all these teachers are constantly in there and you get to talk about cool things in English and what they’re doing. I got to give a lot of immediate feedback, or they get to tell me the exciting things that have been happening in their room.

Q: With your new position, what are your plans to improve the school?

A: I’ve been working a lot on streamlining things: taking the course recommendations and putting them through powerschool instead of having the triplicate sheets. We’re talking about doing a digital course offering book so that kids can click through courses and have a sample screencast from a class or a sample of what it means to be successful in this class, with quotes from kids who have been in it. So it’s a little bit more interactive. We’ve looked around at other high schools, and they don’t really have anything like it. We feel like we’re moving in the right direction in how we can turn a book that sits on everyone’s shelves into something kids can really use and can refer classes to other kids. We’re excited.

Q: What has been the most challenging part so far?

A: Being pulled in a lot of different directions. I think in English, I was able to really know what was going to happen in my day. In here, I put things on my calendar but at last minute something can come up. This can totally change my day. I try to get into classrooms every week because that’s the most important part of my job, making sure that kids are having a good experience and teachers feel supported. I like to really celebrate all the good things that teachers do everyday and give them permission to take risks.

Q: What do you spend the most time doing during the school day?

A: Planning and offering advice. Most of my day is planning for next year, so it’s all been about course recommendations and placement for eighth graders. Right now with planning, I am living in 2017 and 18, I’m always almost a full nine months ahead than the student body.

Q: Do you like always being ahead?

A: I do! When you get there and you see the outcome, you feel like taking a deep breath and saying, ‘it happened just the way I’d hoped’, and if it doesn’t, you can problem solve in the moment to stop whatever is going wrong. Sometimes, you are pulled into the moment to problem solve something really fast, but with all the work you put into something, you get to see it to its completion.

Q: What’s the best part of your school day?

A: Absolutely getting into classes and talking with kids. I was just in a sculpture class today, and seeing kids really engage with each other and try to produce something that they’re super proud of. Sometimes you walk into a class and see a certain student struggles in English, and then you see them in Math and they are stellar. It’s amazing because I think that when I was in English, I was only able to see the student body in that subject area. I love to see teaching and all the different changes that kids have to make during a day. They’re talking about geometry one period, then they’re making a sculpture the next, then they’re writing a paper the next period and then they’re running a mile the next. I get to see kids be so versatile that you’re reminded of all the excitement they have for building their futures.