Dr. Boyer Interview

In the fall of 2024, West Chester East made two huge changes. With the promotion of Dr. Brown, Dr. Graham became principal and West Chester East added a new member of the school with the hiring of Dr. Boyer as its new assistant principal. I set out to interview Dr. Boyer to learn more about him.

Question 1: What is your level of education and where is it from?

A1: “So I have a doctorate in ministry, actually it’s from united lutheran seminary but I also have multiple masters degrees, one of which of course is in education and that’s from the university of Pennsylvania. After that, later on, I did some work towards what’s called principal certification at immaculata university.”
Question 2: What is your experience prior to coming to WC East High School?

A2: “So I’ve been a few different places, I started my career in the city of Philadelphia teaching ninth grade algebra for several years, I also taught eleventh grade US history at another school and then I returned to chester where for a number of years I taught sixth grade social studies at valley forge middle school, which was very cool because I graduated from conestoga high school so I was in the same district. And then I was elected to my local school board. So I went to the Norristown area school district where I taught seventh grade pre-algebra and then I became an administrator at the high school and I was the lead disciplinary for the whole building for three years.”

Question 3: What made you apply and want to work at WC East High School?

A3: “So I saw the opportunity to do what I’ve been doing which is working with students and helping students and supporting teachers but to do it in a community that I also do some other work in and have some friends and family in. And the opportunity to come to west chester was a great one. I’m fortunate enough to be here and somebody thought that I was worth joining the amazing staff at East which is an amazing feeling.”

Question 4: What knowledge and qualities do you bring from your old job or jobs that could play a part in improving East?

A4: “More than anything else I think I bring a lot of experience supporting and helping young people. Of course you don’t become a school administrator without being a teacher or a guidance counselor but often those who move into assistant principal roles have spent time in classrooms so they have an understanding of the concerns that teachers have as they support students. The needs the teachers have, the ways that teachers you know need assistance, pushing instruction and helping to make sure that students learn. So I think more than anything else I bring my classroom experience and then of course experience working with tons of different students, I’ve taught tons of different students, some of them urban, suburban, all kinds of demographics, beliefs, religions, and I think all of that experience helps me support the students at East.”

Question 5: What are your first impressions of WC East?

A5: “That’s easy. I think West Chester East is a great school. The biggest thing that I’ve observed in my month and a couple of weeks of being here is that almost everybody I see is happy to be here, if not everybody, they want to come into this building they feel welcome here, I think that goes a really long way. I see people who are excited to be in this building and consider East their home, and there’s tremendous amount of East pride and every other person seems to be wearing sweatpants with East logos on it or jackets and polos with East stuff on it. So that tells me that a lot of people have a lot of pride in this building and it makes a difference.”

Question 6: What’s a quality you see in the staff here that helps get goals accomplished?

A6: “Definitely a one team mindset. There’s a lot of unity around a common purpose of helping kids, helping students, helping young people. Everybody’s a part of the same team and that shows. Everybody's working towards the same goals.”

Question 7: Is there anything about you that you feel the students at East should know about you?

A7: “Just that I’m here to help, I’m in their corner even if they haven’t met me yet I’m in their corner. You know I think every person is deserving of support, and sometimes support doesn’t necessarily look like what we want it to look like. But every person, not just students, but every student, every teacher is deserving of support and assistance, as they need it and I’m here to support and assist. To push them in their goals and push them in their purpose whatever they believe that is.” 

Question 8: If you could give one piece of advice to highschool students everywhere what would you tell them?

A8: “Pursue your passion.” 

Question 9: What made you interested in a profession in education?

A9: “I love the idea of helping people go after knowledge. Sometimes people think that teaching is giving knowledge but a lot of being an educator is igniting a passion for knowledge and a passion for learning, and from a young age I love the idea that I can help ignite somebody’s fire to learn more and to be better.” 

Thank you Dr. Boyer for agreeing to do this interview!