Our Principal Teacher Will Be...

From Framingham (MA) MetroWest Daily News.

Dear Bill: Do more with less. I want to see three classes on your schedule ASAP. Everyone said at the last meeting how talented you are. Signed: William Hellmann, Emperor of Education.

P.S. Find four more people on the staff who can teach and get them in classrooms. Save money. Reduce headcount. Get it done!

Ashland High principal teaching English this year

By David Riley/Daily News staff
The MetroWest Daily News, Posted Sep 30, 2008 @ 10:00 AM

ASHLAND —High school Principal Michael Tempesta's days are filled with much more than crunching budgets and supervising staff and students.

This fall, his responsibilities include explaining iambic pentameter, similes and stanzas, and a little bit of Kurt Vonnegut's prose.

Tempesta, a former English teacher, has stepped back into the classroom this year, co-teaching a level one English course for juniors with special education teacher Charlene Miller.

He said he took on the course largely because the class otherwise would have had nearly 30 students in it - far more than is ideal, especially for teens who need some extra attention from their teacher.

"Do you step in and take half of it, or you stick one teacher with this huge, really demanding class?" Tempesta said.

Although the course presents some scheduling challenges for the principal, the answer was clear. "The secret for our success is definitely the small class sizes," he said yesterday.

Tempesta said this is only one example of how high school staff is adapting to keep programs strong as resources shrink and enrollment grows. As of earlier this month, the high school had 18 more students than last year, with a total of nearly 750 teens.

Ashland High is still doing well, Tempesta said, and is proud to offer 15 Advanced Placement classes and a host of honors courses that he believes offer students a better chance of being accepted to competitive colleges.

"We've done incredibly well," he said, noting Ashland was named among the country's best high schools last year by U.S. News and World Report. "In fact, we're doing better."

But with tightening staff levels, Tempesta said he worries about how long his school can keep doing that.

During budget season, Tempesta had requested three additional teachers for the fall. As the district grappled with cuts and a deficit, the new positions were not approved. With some departures, the school lost the full-time equivalent of 1.8 teachers, Tempesta said.

The school cut a gym/wellness teacher position to free up hours for math and science, he said. Teacher Chris Beaton gave up managing the virtual high school program, through which students can take high-level courses online, to teach an additional class. Guidance Director Brian Garrigan has taken on coordinating virtual high school instead.

The school has restructured other positions and added responsibilities to existing ones, Tempesta said. Still, the school has more class sizes reaching 25 or 30 students, he said.

For now, some of the school's creative efforts to keep class sizes in check have their benefits. Getting in the classroom, Tempesta said, helps him connect with students and his staff.

An English teacher at Ashland High for about seven years before he left to become an assistant principal in Sharon, Tempesta developed some of the same materials he is teaching today. He returned to Ashland High five years later to take the helm.

Still, "I love to teach," he said.

There are more English sections than teachers this year, department Chairwoman Sue Bronstein said.

"I think he has enjoyed it," she said of Tempesta. "At the bottom line, the teachers will teach their best regardless of what they are given."

Students said yesterday having the principal teach about American literature is a little unusual, but they had no complaints, at least not to a reporter.

"If I'm getting the material, then he's doing pretty good," junior Naomi Ehrens said.

"It's different," said student Matt Bradshaw. "It's hard to slack off."

Although he is no fan of literature, "it's better than the other English classes I've had so far," Bradshaw said.

Through creative efforts, Tempesta said, "I think we have the most diverse course of study in Massachusetts for a school our size."

He hopes to keep it that way. "I feel a sense of responsibility," he said. "You do what you can administratively."