Tricia Fusco stood in the brightly colored hallway of McAnnulty Elementary School one day last month, the swishing of backpacks as they bounced up and down her only warning before a group of kindergartners flew through the building’s doors, quickly bombarding her with hugs and questions.
“Hi sister,” Ms. Fusco, principal at the Baldwin-Whitehall school, said to one student who came up to her after getting off the bus that morning. “How are you today? Are you having a good day,” she asked another.
That morning dozens of kids swarmed their principal, pointing out her multi-colored nails and glittery silver shoes. It was a daily occurrence for Ms. Fusco, who typically stands outside as buses roll in, making herself visible while also ensuring students feel welcome each morning.
“It’s a great way to start off the day, just welcoming the kids, making sure that they’re having a great day,” Ms. Fusco said. “I don’t know if it’s more for me because there’s no better way to start off my day than to see the kids. I get a million hugs and just some of the things they tell me are just hilarious. It’s just the best feeling to see them smile and just be happy to be here.”
Across the region, principals representing students of all ages trek to the front of their school buildings daily, taking time out of busy schedules to build relationships with each child and staff member who walks through the doors.
While the trend is not new, it is key for those in the top spot wanting to build a welcoming environment, said Eric Eshbach, executive director of the Pennsylvania Principals Association, a professional organization that supports school administrators. Being visible to students and staff, he said, can help principals manage buildings filled with hundreds or thousands of students, allowing them to get to know the children and teens on a more personal level.
“It’s just a good practice to do,” Mr. Eshbach said. “When a student is recognized and addressed by name, it just makes a huge difference.”
It can also help curb things such as high absenteeism rates and mental health issues that have skyrocketed since the COVID-19 pandemic because students know there will be “a familiar face, someone that they trust,” greeting them, Mr. Eshback said.
“If there's just one more person that a student can come to to share a concern, to talk to, to know that they’re loved, to know that they belong, it's a great thing,” Mr. Eshback said.
Around 8:20 a.m., Logan Elementary, part of the East Allegheny School District, starts to bustle with nearly 700 students in kindergarten through sixth grade. As they leave the bus they are greeted by Ryan Encapera, the school’s dean of students, before passing multiple staff members on their way in the doors where they go through a bag check process. Inside, multiple staff fill the halls, asking students how they are and complimenting their outfits.
Amid the organized chaos of the morning, Principal Cara McKenna walks the halls, talking to students, getting hugs and fistbumps and asking kids if they’re OK. She typically hangs out on the second floor of the school to encourage students in fourth through sixth grade to get to class. One day this week, she stopped by a fourth grade classroom getting ready to take their science PSSAs. “Hey guys,” she told students. “Two more days. You can do it, I believe in you.”
“I feel like my presence is needed,” Ms. McKenna said. “I know which groups to kind of walk behind getting to homeroom and those kinds of things. I have teachers throughout the hallways specially spotted for those hot areas and just trying to alleviate any issues that we have in the morning and just being proactive rather than reactive.”
The process, she said, is only one piece of the morning routine. Down a hallway leading to the cafeteria, the walls are filled with colorful initiatives. To the left, bright yellow clocks, one for each grade, marks weekly attendance rates, a competition among students to encourage them to come to school each day. On both sides of the hallway are blue and yellow boxes filled with tickets students earned for good behavior or good attendance and grades. It is part of a positive behavior interventions and supports initiative put in place this year.
Those efforts, along with new welcome signs at the entrances and an improved security desk, Ms. McKenna said, work to make the school more welcoming for both students and staff.
Down Duquesne Boulevard at Steel Valley Senior High School, Principal John Strom chooses to stand outside each day, fistbumping, shaking hands and saying good morning to each student. The goal is to show them “we’re happy that they’re here,” Mr. Strom said, something that can help improve things such as attendance rates.
He said at the high school he works to promote a family atmosphere where students can come into school and talk to staff about “any of your problems in or out of school,” Mr. Strom said.
As the year goes on, school officials look for different ways to keep up morale and encourage kids to come to school consistently, something, Mr. Strom said, “starts with a smile and a good morning outside.”
At the Steel Valley Middle School, housed in the same building as the high school, Principal Clay Stone said administrators and teachers spend the morning greeting students and “making sure kids are ready for the day, making sure they have what they need, making sure they are in a space where they’re ready to learn,” Mr. Stone said.
Mr. Stone and Kimberly Winters, the elementary principal, are both in their first years at their buildings. That means, Mr. Stone said, that being visible is not only important for students, but for staff and parents getting to know their new principals.
Ms. Winters stands outside during arrival when possible, giving high fives and hugs to students as they come in. If she is not available to greet students, she’ll go to the cafeteria during breakfast to sit down and talk to kids.
“It’s really building relationships so the kids feel like you genuinely care about them,” Ms. Winters said. “It’s not just oh you’re a student in third grade, it’s you’re getting to know them by name.”
That has caused her mornings to be filled with excited greetings from children saying, “‘Ms. Winters, I need my morning hug,’” she said. “It’s just those types of things that you hear that you know that you’re making that difference and creating that bond. And the parents see it so they feel it as well.”
At Baldwin High School in the Baldwin-Whitehall School District, Assistant Principal Brandon Whitfield stood outside greeting students as they were dropped off by parents and guardians one day last month.
“There she is,” Mr. Whitfield told one student, greeting her with a fistbump. “Have a wonderful Thursday” and “It’s a great day to be a Highlander,” he said throughout the morning.
As students entered, they mingled in a hallway outside the gym, talking to friends and getting ready for their day. At the other end of the hallway, Assistant Principal Denise Wells stood inside the building entrance, greeting students as they came off the bus.
Ms. Wells and Mr. Whitfield said they try to greet students daily, something Ms. Wells said “gives them a sense of someone’s looking out for me, I’m welcomed here. I think it’s so important.”
And she noted, “it’s actually good for me. I love saying hi and seeing their reaction cause half the time they’re like ‘Can you leave me alone?’ So it’s like ‘No, I can’t.’ And finally they’ll catch on and are like ‘Hi, Ms. Wells.’”
Back at McAnnulty Elementary school, Ms. Fusco — whose purple-streaked hair is a nod to her love of the hue, which happens to be one of Baldwin-Whitehall’s school colors — added that part of her greeting process involves knowing each child’s name, something she learns by studying their pictures and name. If she doesn’t remember, she’ll use a nickname, something that typically sticks for the rest of the school year.
“As a principal it obviously is my top priority to educate them and make sure they’re safe,” Ms. Fusco said. “But when I see their smiling faces coming through the door and they want to be here, then that validates that I’m doing something right.”
First Published: May 6, 2024, 9:30 a.m.
Updated: May 7, 2024, 3:55 p.m.