New High School Principal will Continue Teaching Outside the Classroom

Kenneth Palczewski has never forgotten what it means to be teacher.

As the new principal of Wayne Valley High School, the seasoned Wayne administrator understands that being in charge of the building comes with its own set of challenges and requirements. But he is a teacher, first and foremost.

“When myself and the other assistant principals left the classroom, we never stopped being educators, we never stopped wanting to impact student learning,” Palczewski said. “Some of the older models of administration moved away from being involved in the classroom but now we have a marrying of them.”

Palczewski has years of experience at the administrative level. He was an assistant principal at Wayne Hills High School from 2008 until this summer. Before that he was a dean of students at Hills and Schuyler-Colfax Middle School for five years. Robert Reis was principal at Valley for 17 years. He retired in July.

“In some respects, I’m going back to my roots,” Palczewski said. “I’m at an advantage. I’m able to draw on those experiences and meld them together with what I’ve done previously, and to what everyone is already doing here, and put together a plan that works best for us.”

The challenges are many for Palczewski and his staff. The new state Common Core standards and a new teacher evaluation system are being implemented this year. The district revamped its administrative structure earlier this year. Four assistant principals will be shared between the two high schools. Each high school also has 12 non-supervisory department heads who will “provide additional content and program expertise,” Superintendent Ray Gonzalez previously said. Three assistant principals will aid operations in the district’s nine elementary schools and two will be shared between the three middle schools.

“I think we have some outstanding students, highly dedicated and talented staff, and a community of parents who value education. Whenever you get all those things together you’re going to be successful,” Palczewski said. “Our middle and elementary schools, we’re all in this together, we don’t do in each in our own shell. We are a very high performing school district and we want to continue to be.”

— Have a question or news tip? Contact editor Daniel Hubbard at Daniel.Hubbard@patch.com or find us on Facebook and Twitter. For news straight to your inbox, sign up for our daily newsletter.