Education consultant is McKinley's new principal

Jun. 20—When Robyn Pekarek was a child, she used to ask her elementary school teachers for extra copies of worksheets. She would then take these worksheets home with her where she would use them to play school with her dolls. She knew even from a young age that she wanted to be a teacher and when it came time to choose her career that was exactly what she did.

This coming school year, she will take on the position of principal at McKinley Elementary School in Abilene.

"I grew up in a family with a lot of educators," Pekarek said. "That's one thing — it's just kind of been instilled in me. I've had a love for school. I remember when I was in elementary school as a student, I had some wonderful elementary teachers and I wanted to be like them."

From that little girl playing teacher with her dolls to an adult woman making a career in education, Pekarek has seen multiple ups and downs in education, but she has never wanted to do anything else.

Even when she has a bad day, she knows what she is meant to do and it's exactly what she is doing.

"Even in those moments, I think there's nothing else I'd rather be doing," she said. "There's no other place I'd rather be than there in a school."

Pekarek's own children attend school in Abilene. She lives in Abilene with her husband and three children. She is thrilled to work in USD 435 and to be back in an actual school building this coming school year.

"So I'm very excited to be in this district," she said. "Currently, I work at Smoky Hill Education Service Center in Salina as an education consultant. I've previously been a special education teacher, second grade, kindergarten, third grade teacher and an interventionist. So this year I haven't been in a building. So I am very excited to be back again in a building and working with the teachers."

Being in an actual school building affords Pekarek a lot of unique opportunities she might not find somewhere else, including hands-on involvement with students and their families.

"I really miss being known as Mrs. Pekarek," she said. "I loved being a teacher and I loved getting to work with kids and being involved in family lives and just getting to know kids personally. And so when I stepped away from that this year to do more professional development opportunities for teachers, I just realized how much I missed that involvement with students and families. So that's a huge piece of why I am really excited for this position."

Working in Abilene makes this new position even better.

"As far as being a part of Abilene — just from my own children being in the district — I'm excited to be a part of a district that's very proactive and progressive in not just instructional ways but also social-emotional learning," she said. "Just a district that's very supportive of teachers and always wanting to put students first and doing what's best for kids."

This is Pekarek's first time teaching in any Abilene school.

She anticipates some things will be the same in her new school district as in other districts where she has taught and other things will be very different.

She and her family have moved quite a bit for her husband's career, which she feels has been a good experience for her because it has taught her a lot. She has learned how to be adaptable and adjust quickly to new situations.

"Honestly, compared to lots of different school districts and lots of different buildings I've been in, everybody has the same commonality of we're all trying to do what's best for kids," Pekarek said. "The differences of course will be in the forms of Abilene has different resources they use for the core reading program, the different math resources. So it will be me having time to kind of learn what those entail and what they look like and just getting a handle on different district procedures on things. So just learning all the ins and outs of Abilene and the McKinley procedures."

Pekarek knows being a principal will not be an easy task. She believes major challenges will include learning her new routine and new time management skills to balance her home life with her work life.

"I think the biggest challenge will be probably just managing my time and figuring out how to get into a new routine and a new group with everything," Pekarek said.

As principal of McKinley, she hopes to grow close relationships with the staff members, the students and the students' families.

"I really want to just take a lot of time to build up relationships and just continue that team environment that's already present at McKinley," Pekarek said. "So that's a huge part from day one and really in my first year I just want to get to know everything I can about McKinley and get to know the reasons why processes and procedures are in place."

She anticipates asking a lot of questions and being ready to learn in her first year as the principal. Pekarek hopes for a smooth transition into her new job while keeping the good things that are already going on at McKinley in place.

In the long term, Pekarek hopes to make McKinley stronger through the use of a lot of teamwork.

McKinley has several teachers who have taken on a significant role in training other teachers in USD 435, she said. Because Pekarek has so much instructional background, she said she is excited to work with them and other members of her staff to build on this practice and help educators in the district to meet student needs in terms of both academics and behavior.

"I am a big team player and I want to utilize my instructional leadership team and their expertise and just build on working as a team when we need to make decisions and when we need to implement new things and to utilize all of their expertise," she said. "I know that I'm going into a building where there's a lot of staff that has a lot of years of experience and that's amazing."