By: Aniya Strain

At 6:00 in the morning Mrs. Donadio starts her day greeting the early bird students. Even though students may only notice Mrs. Donadio's smiling face one or two times a day, she is a very present principal. “The best things in school and life are the relationships and how people care about others,” said Mrs. Donadio. Mrs. Donadio works with staff members and the other administrative team members to make sure Bob Miller is safe and enjoyable, but that’s just the beginning.

After spending the day with Mrs. Donadio, I learned that Principals need to be hardworking and need to be excited for the job because I can tell you, that it is not easy. Principals have been in American schools for more than a century. Originally, students were taught in one room schools with every age group. The changes came along in the middle of the 19th century. The principals were teachers, town clerks, gravediggers, church choristers, court messengers, and sometimes church bell ringers. Now, their main focus is on leadership and managing the school. (Goldman, THE SCHOOL PRINCIPAL). Principals need to have a master's degree in education administration or educational leadership. Admission to a master’s program requires you to have a bachelor’s degree, GRE scores, and a teaching license. (Learn.org)

Mrs. Donadio is here at 6:00 a.m. and she normally ends the day much later than when the students leave because of school activities and how much work she has to do. “I start at 6:00 a.m. because I want to be visible for our early bird kids. That way they know if they need help, someone is here,” said Mrs. Donadio. She then does courtyard duty and after courtyard duty, Mrs. Donadio’s secretary, Raquel Kaleb, notifies her if there is a late bus or anything else that she needs to say on the loudspeaker. When the bell rings for all students to be in their class, Mrs. Donadio says the morning announcements and notifies the students and teachers what they need to know for today.

The whole office shares a calendar and they put things that tell the administrative team what meetings they may have or when they need to be present for things or not. “Raquel puts things on our calendar if something is important. We share a calendar to know if someone is gone. We use google classroom as a staff and we post our professional development.”

On a regular day, Mrs. Donadio sends emails to teachers telling them what she sent to the families because it is important to make sure that all the teachers are notified. After, she has a bin with all absences and things that need to be signed off like school field trips, “All things that are cooking in the building,” because as a principal she needs to sign them and make sure that the money matches up.

When I was shadowing Mrs. Donadio, she was signing off the Catalina field trip for $48,000. She also had me help with her calendar. I started putting in school board meeting meeting dates for the school year of 2019 and 2020 and any other important dates. “We start planning ahead a lot just to make sure that nobody assigns field trips or activities on the same day. We try not to put anything on board meeting dates to ensure our board trustee is available to attend our events,” said Mrs. Donadio. When we were talking in her office she told me, “We have 3 open jobs: custodian, campus monitor, and special ed aide. Before I can hire, I have to review the paper and get it to the district.”

While we were walking to the 800s hall to check on the teachers and students, Mrs. Donadio said, "When I was a principal in elementary school, everyone was part-time so I had to decide everything.

Señor Ekker went to Cambodia, which was on his bucket list, to visit Angkor Wat, which is a monument and a temple. “My aunt is Vietnamese and we spent the summer in Vietnam. While visiting her family we decided to see a few more countries during our visit to Vietnam. I had always wanted to see Angkor Wat. Cambodia was on my bucket list,” said Mr. Ekker.

In Nepal, Monsieur Ekker visited Mt. Everest, the tallest mountain in the world, and hiked the Tiger’s Nest, a monastery with a statue of a tiger. Also he went to Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal. “Seeing Mt Everest, hiking the Tiger's Nest, and seeing Kathmandu was important to me," said Mr. Ekker.

Señor Ekker is able to bring his life experience into the classroom.

Claire Leavitt, 8th grader in Spanish two said, “My favorite part of Señor Ekker is how he always prepares us for tests.” She also said, “He succeeds in his teaching by preparing his lessons ahead of time. Also he pushes us to try new things and be more diverse.”

“My favorite part of Señor Ekker is that he is really nice and fun,” said Lily Anna Houle, a 7th grader in Spanish one. “Trying mate ( a South American drink) was cool and different," said Lily.

Señor Ekker’s journey to teaching was not orthodox. He got his inspiration and push into his current job by his mother who was a principal.

"I went to school and received an International Business Degree," said Mr. Ekker, "I was never going to teach. I was then going to go on to get my Law Degree." My mom was a principal and pulled me aside and said, " I think you have a heart for education and should be a teacher." I stayed in school another year to get my education degree. I have never regretted my decision to become a teacher. 26 years later and here I am still going strong.”

“A good teacher can inspire hope, ignite the imagination, and instill a love of learning," said Brad Henry, the 26th governor of Oklahoma.