By: Angelina Feliciano
There are many students who are either scared or tend to not have respect when they hear the term “Assistant Principal” since students assume that the people in charge are always against them. In reality, this is the opposite of what people should think, especially if they’ve only seen one side of them. This is especially true with one of our assistant principals, Mr. McKinney, as he is always finding a way to make people laugh even though sometimes he doesn’t do it on purpose (like that one time he accidentally hit his head when looking outside the window when we were AP testing).
Even in the beginning, I remember being slightly intimidated, especially since Mr. McKinney came to this school during the pandemic, so when we returned from quarantine it was essentially my first time meeting him. Then during my senior year, I started to get to know him better since I would talk to him whenever I was in Mr. Bragg and Mr. Winchell’s room. As I began to get to know him better I realized how funny and chill he actually is which is quite literally the opposite of intimidating. He is always joking around with me and always calls me out when I accidentally don’t say “Hi” to him. He is one of the kindest people you can meet here at Neuwirth especially since he is always so welcoming to everyone. I then decided to ask a student here at Neuwirth, Reina Estrada whether she ever found one of our Assistant Principals, Mr. McKinney, intimidating, and she said “I did find him intimidating because he’s like tall and I didn’t know him and I’m not good with strangers so I was like ‘Omg who is this person?’ So like I found him intimidating but at the same time no because I just really didn’t know him at the time”.
As I was able to get to know Mr. McKinney better it made me start wondering exactly how Mr. McKinney became Assistant Principal here at Neuwirth since he had mentioned before that he came from Texas.
Neuwirth Times: Growing up did you always want to become an assistant principal? If so, what made you want to become one?
Mr. McKinney: I didn’t, I actually wanted to be an astronaut and that was always my life goal but my hips broke when I was younger and so when I was in college so I spent my time in college trying to figure out what I wanted to do. Then I did an internship and volunteered to help people with tutoring which is where I got interested in education
NT: Were there any challenges you faced along the way?
McKinney: Yeah absolutely! This work is hard and in this career, you don’t see progress for a long time so I think that if you’re in education you’re in it for the long run. Many people don’t truly respect their profession even if they say they do
NT: What made you decide to come to Neuwirth?
McKinney: I worked with Dagnino in Texas and I was working in another organization and wasn’t happy there so during the pandemic Neuwirth had an opening for an Assistant Principal and Dagnino reached out so I decided to come here. I was already looking to come to an Alliance school since I was unhappy where I was at.
NT: What are some things you like about being here at Neuwirth?
McKinney: This place feels like home. We have a good community here and I love the community I serve. I also love the co-workers here and the space they create so I’m always looking forward to coming to work since it never feels like it’s something I have to do.
After reading this article I hope you make an effort to talk to Mr. McKinney and build a bond with him as he is a really nice person.