Meet Plainfield middle school's new-ish principal: Here's how he plans to start the year

Dave St. Jean is looking forward to his first year starting as the new Plainfield Central Middle School principal. Having come on board 11 months ago, this will be the first time he begins in the role right at the outset, an exciting prospect for the first-time principal.

St. Jean found his education calling as a high school English teacher, in the Windsor school district, going on to become the English department chairperson and an associate principal at Timothy Edwards Middle School for eight years, in Hartford. When he heard about the opening in Plainfield, he was particularly enamored with the close-knit community.

The Bulletin spoke with St. Jean about his approach in the new position. St. Jean’s answers are below, which have been edited for conciseness and clarity.

Why did you take this new position?

I was really looking for a smaller setting to get to know students better; you know, more interaction and just more of a hometown kind of a feeling, and Plainfield certainly has that.

How different is the middle school environment from your experience working at a high school?

The middle school energy is fantastic and kids are just trying to figure out who they are. We all look back on our middle school times as a challenging time for all of us. It takes some special adults to really help shepherd kids through that time.

What do you think some of your biggest challenges will be?

Well, I think it's just getting to understand the climate and culture of Plainfield. It's a little different from where I came from. It’s a very proud, very tradition-laden community. It’s a multigenerational community where parents and grandparents came through this school system, and there's a lot of pride in the community.

And have you made any kind of changes because of the pandemic?

Well, we spent a lot of time, energy and thoughtful discussions and planning around social-emotional learning, social-emotional intelligence. We're implementing a program called Ruler, from the Yale national system of development [which values emotional intelligence and a positive climate]. A student won't really feel safe and comfortable learning until they feel like they're safe and comfortable in the classroom.

And what are some of the initiatives at the school that you're excited about?

We have a new information system for staff, families and students. Also, the Ruler program that we're implementing, but we're trying not to overload staff and students. We're trying to get good at the things that we already do.

We have also been trying to get more kids involved with the sports and after-school clubs, music and things like that. Last year was the first year we went back to field trips. We have some work with EWIB [Eastern CT Workforce Investment Board].

I'm excited to work with the new high school principal, about building relationships between his kids and our kids, especially through the music program, and some of these technical offerings that his school currently offers that we don't.

We offer probably 10 to 15 after-school clubs. And then there's a Leadership Club, where they've done different kinds of activities including karaoke at lunch. The lead custodian and I did [a song] with the cafeteria staff.

What was your song of choice?

We did “Sweet Caroline.”

We know what we're doing is very serious here and very important, but we try not to take ourselves too seriously. You have to be able to laugh at yourself. You have to be able to take the time to connect with kids and make them feel like they're heard and understood. And then, just trying to help shepherd them to make good decisions, have good habits, reach their potential.

What are your personal goals with the school?

Personally, I think that I want to make sure that the students feel safe when they come here, that they have a trusted adult that they can come to. Not everything is going to go their way nor does it in any of our lives. But how do we help kids to be able to work through that?

I really want to address our student achievement. And I think that we could perform better, I think our kids could learn at a higher level.

And the third way is to improve our attendance. We've had some issues statewide in the change of how important families sometimes view school and coming to school after the pandemic. I'm sure it's a minority, but we really want to make sure that kids know how important it is to come to school, and how much we need them here.

What do you think your personal impact will be? What kind of difference are you hoping to make?

Personally, you know, I think that [I bring] a new perspective on things. I'm not trying to come in and turn the school on its head. I really would like us to work smarter, not harder.

And what's that expression? "You're either winning or you're learning," right? So I make a lot of mistakes, just like everybody else. We try to teach our students it's OK to make mistakes as long as you learn from it.

What are you looking forward to this year?

Well, we haven't had a PTO here in about five years and I’m trying to really revitalize it so I'm excited about connecting with parents and the community in that aspect.

I'm also excited about just not having to learn everything new again this year. Trying to do something for a second time, and to be better at it.

The first day of school at Plainfield Central Middle School is Aug. 28.

This article originally appeared on Gardner News: Plainfield Central Middle School: Dave St. Jean is new principal