 Hi, my name is Michael Morris, I'm the superintendent of the Amherst Palms Regional School District, and welcome to a special summer edition of When Doing to Arps. We typically don't have interviews or videos in the summer, but this summer we have an exciting new person in our organization that we want to welcome both to the district but also to the larger community. So I'd like to welcome Gene Jones, who's the principal of Amherst Regional High School. It started a couple of weeks ago, we're filming this in mid-July, and I want to really thank you for coming on board. We've been thrilled to have you, and I appreciate it to you coming even a little early to meet the outgoing eighth graders at their graduation the last day of school on June 14th, even though you weren't yet moved to the area. Appreciate that, and it's been great working with you so far, and I know the community has a lot of interest and is interested in connecting with you, understanding and supporting your role at the high school. So welcome. Well thank you Dr. Morris. I'm very excited to be here. This has been a great experience so far, and the community here in Amherst, which I already knew, would be very welcoming, has really extended themselves to my wife and I, and we are very excited to be here. Great. Thank you. Well for me in the community, please share, I think I've gotten to know you a little more than the rest of the community today, but please tell me a bit about yourself and your experiences as an educator prior to coming to Amherst. Well I have over 25 years of experience, mostly in Virginia. I started my career in Norfolk, Virginia, where I grew up and was raised and of course educating the schools there, the Catholic schools there, but I've also been an administrator as principal in Philadelphia, also Syracuse, and other school districts within Santa Virginia. I started as a social studies teacher, moved up to the ranks as a dean, assistant principal, executive director of high schools, but most of my career has been in the building as a high school principal, where I really find my most enjoyment in working with kids, working with parents, and of course our students. So talk to me a little bit about being a high school principal in particular, since that's your greatest area of background. What parts of being a high school principal do you enjoy? What about that age group that you really enjoy working with? Well that group is very interesting because you have students who are transitioning from middle school, coming in as ninth graders, and then within that four-year period you see students mature, you see them grow, you see them make various choices socially as well as athletically in terms of instruction, and you really feel as though that you're on that platform for their post-secondary lives, whether it be college, career, world of work, but you really get to see students grow, and that's the most fun part, and of course helping students in facilitating that growth so that when they become young adults they can always say that these years were their best years. Yeah, that's very inspiring to hear. The other way I went to elementary in my background, experience, and for similar reasons, and that's one of the nice things about being part of a K-12 school system, in our case systems, is that you really get to see the growth, and one of the neat things for me is starting that age out of it, but some of the students who were my students when I was principal at Crocker Farmer Elementary School, walk across the stage and talk about growth, right? Absolutely. When I saw them they're 12 years old, and you know for the most part they walk across the stage at 18, and I can definitely identify with how exciting it is to see that kind of self-actualization and self-realization that happens at the high school level. Absolutely. Yeah. So tell me, what interested you in coming to Amherst? You know, I know you talked about your background from being in other states, working in other states primarily in Virginia. What was it about Massachusetts and then Amherst specifically that made this a job you wanted to apply for? Well, I went to Boston University for my undergraduate studies, so I was familiar with the state of Massachusetts. However, when I started posting, I was talking with some friends of mine as well as some people I was working with in some consultation areas, and I went online immediately and saw all the good things that are going on here in Amherst, and I said, this is a place that I would like to be. The community, the schools such as UMass, Amherst College, Holyoke, as well as Hampshire College are all here, Smith, and you see a great consortium of resources that you have here, and then just looking at the high school and all the great things that are going on there. I said, well, I would like to be a part of that team and also help facilitate and lead what's already going well, enhance that, and move forward. Yeah, that's great. How have you enjoyed, you know, being in the area for the last couple weeks so far? Because it's not just a job change, it's also a life change for you in terms of where you're living. It's been super. My wife and I have been able to get around the surrounding area as well as here in the Amherst community. I drove over to Boston, they're a little reminiscing for my college days. That was kind of neat, we've been there twice. I had some good seafood there, because we're from in the Taiwan area where seafood is huge. So we were comparing seafood so far, I think, Massachusetts, New England, I think have southern Virginia a little beat right now. Wow, that's a surprise. Coming from connoisseurs, we can definitely say that. Also, just getting to meet people here, just getting to know the community, it's just really been a great transition. One that is a huge one coming from our years in the South, but definitely it's been very smooth and very easy. Great. Have you been able to meet some of the faculty and staff that are generally not in in the summer, although some are for different projects? Have you been able to meet the administrative team and some of the faculty and staff and perhaps even some families or students so far? Yes. As a matter of fact, I want to say to the administrative team that was there last year, a big thank you, because there's no question that they held everything together. They kept everything moving. Dr. Grimaki, Mr. Tlaib. Sadiq. I'm learning all my things. You're learning a lot. Of course, the deans and so forth, they've all been super and been very helpful to office staff, making that transition, helping me as we prepare for the opening of school this year, really looking forward to working with them. Teachers have come in, some community members have stopped by and setting up meetings as I go through my entry plan. A lot of things that I wanted to do have already occurred. Some of it's just been kind of natural, but of course there'll be other things that I've planned within that 90 days that working with the community and meeting other people, groups so that we can really hit the ground running and mesh very well. On that topic, what are some of your goals for the start of the school year, which is hard because it feels like we're in the beginning of summer, but really we're about six, seven weeks out from this taping for when our students return and our staff and faculty return a little before that. What are some of the goals that you have to start the year off with in a positive way? Well, I think one is really developing those relationships with our staff and with our students and with our parents. Being visible, that's key. And getting into classrooms every day. My goal is to be in a series of classes throughout the day throughout different departments, having the teachers see me, the course meeting the students, and seeing the flow of instruction at Amherst. One of the things that I'm very curious to see is how do students grow and how do they learn? And how can we continue to enhance that and prove upon it as needed, but really to see how well students are working. One of the things that stood out, both in your comment there, but also as I recall the interview process this spring, was your real commitment to high quality instruction for all students. Can you talk a little bit about that? Where did that come from? Is that part of why you became an educator in the first place as a social studies teacher? But it's come through every time we have conversations where I've heard you talk to others. That real laser focus on high quality instruction. I'd love to hear you talk a little bit about that. Thank you. I was very fortunate to be mentored by educators who had put a high price on instructional leadership. They're the managerial duties of being a leader, being a principal, which happened every day. But when you look at who you are in education, you know, people say, well Jean, you're a principal. Yes, that's my position, but I'm also an educator. I always have been. I'm always a teacher at heart. So that, I was very lucky to learn from some really good people in my formative years at Norfolk. My principal mentors that I had over the years who put a high price on protecting instruction and instructional leadership and what to look for in a classroom and making sure that students had equitable opportunities during their instructional time that they could improve. So it's just been ingrained in me from the time I began to now and I just continue to use that and also I learned different learning strategies and different ways of looking at data so that we can see how students improve and grow. Yeah. So talk a little about that. What does a high quality classroom look like? So when you walk into a classroom what does that look like that, you know, when you leave you say that knocked my socks off. That is outstanding. What does that look like? Well, you want to see a high level of student engagement. You want to see where the teacher is not just talking to the kids but acting more as a facilitator where you see students working together in groups in particular 21st century education. It's more grouping and working together and not so much individually. Also incorporating the use of technology. Of course here I know that students will have access to Chromebooks. So it's more of a blended learning approach where you see different modalities of teaching of students working together and also being innovative with students who are English language learners, students with special needs and seeing how we incorporate all of that into a classroom where you see an engaged learner. When I come into a classroom and if I walk in and I see a student working together in a group or maybe a small individual project if I can ask them, was it that you're learning? How do you know if you're doing good work? What type of work are you doing? And when a student can articulate that and can tell you in terms of how they're doing good work well that is feedback from the teacher. When they can articulate exactly what they're doing and the reason why they're doing it, that's because they've been engaged and it's relevant to maybe some real world applications. And that's what it's all about. So we see that in the classroom and you see that the standards are being met within the curriculum and you can see that planning has been done and the level of gradual release of the I do, we do, you do model where you see less of I do of the teacher but more of you and we do of teacher and student working together and engagement and you hear that what I call good classroom noise because you hear the excitement going on and you can hear students talking and having an accountable talk with each other then you know you've seen a great lesson and those students can come out and tell you I've learned this today and I may not have done it when I first walked in but as I walk out I do something a little bit more than I did a day before. Thank you very much. That's the classrooms we want to have. I was worried when the pin drop classrooms unless it's MCAST time learning has to be that active experience so I appreciate that. So you've spoken so positively about being in classrooms and that you have to manage them, you know, there's managerial parts of the job. So what motivates you, what motivated you originally and continues to take on the challenging environment of running dynamic, you know, reasonably large sized high schools I know both in your past experience ours isn't so large but that, you know, one of the things that I always find is when you drive by the high school early in the morning there's cars there. When you drive by late at night there's still cars there. There's so many activities going on at all hours whether it's dramatic activities, the arts, music alternative learning experiences that we have in our schools as well as early birds who get there you know quite a bit before the students start. So, you know, I don't want to make it, it's not an impossible job but it's a challenging job to be managing you know such a complex dynamic environment. So for you, what's the motivation, where does it come from because it's really challenging work? It's a passion. It's a passion that you have to work with students and see them grow and it's also that challenge of taking what needs to be done and looking at your strengths and accentuating on them and taking your challenges and saying okay, what is it that we can do to make this better? And how can we make it better for all of our students? And that challenge is what drives me every day. When I come into work I can't wait to get there because I can't wait to see what's going to happen good today and even if it's a challenge how we will adapt and overcome on that challenge and move forward. And then at the end of the day you sit back and say we got it done. And then you see a student who is really excited when they leave and they come up to you and say Mr. Jones, I had a good day today. That's the price in right there. Everything else is relative. So that's what we try to do every day is make ourselves better. Meet the students where they are take them to the next level and if you come in with that enthusiasm you come in with that excitement you come in with that passion. A school like Amherst Regional High School can become what I consider a great school but even greater than we could be one of the top schools in the nation. Thank you. Do you remember much of your high school experience and having that same feeling that you describe in the part of students? I'm just wondering if some of that comes from your own experience as a student? It does. I was very fortunate to go to a school about the same population number as Amherst. I had some great teachers. Some who became my mentors when I became an educator. Really one was instrumental in me getting my first job. He called me in Boston and said, Gene, we got an opening here. Do you want to come for the interview? I said yes. The next thing I know, I had a job because he said I see something in you that you can work with kids and you have that energy. Relationships that were built over the years. Friendships. And just the experiences of really kind of coming out of the shell because I could be, when I was younger, kind of a little bit quiet. And then all of a sudden I said, I want to run for student government. And when I won, I said, oh boy. I won. But it was doing those activities of being involved in a key club, of course playing athletics, ran track, and of course played basketball. And because of that, I met a lot of good friends over the years who are still my friends to this day. And I feel the same way, I think back to my entry into becoming an educator and certainly had some experience working with children before becoming more formally an educator. But I think back about my high school experience and as you noted, I was also played athletics and I was involved in other extracurricular activities and I think that's what's so dynamic about the high school is it's not, it happens between 7.45 and a bit after 2 o'clock in terms of what happens in the classrooms, but the high school experience is much broader than that for our students and the ability to create a community that understands all those different features and all the opportunities and then can take advantage and have access to all those opportunities that our high schools offer. It's both inspiring and can be daunting, you know. Yes, you can. For our students as well entering that environment because there's so much potential and they are adolescents and we want to make sure they feel supported to be able to take those risks that we want them to take. So thank you for sharing that. What are some of your hobbies and interests away from work? I know you work, you know, quite a number of hours, but what's something interesting in the community that you might not know about you in terms of your interests, not during the work day? Well, a huge bike enthusiast. I like to ride my bike and my wife kind of gets on me and I don't ride on trails, I ride the street. I've been doing that for a number of years. Sometimes, you know, 18, 20 miles round trip. Hopefully once everything gets sold here at least three times a week. Also, we both love going to jazz concerts and particularly outdoor jazz concerts in December. And I like doing little projects around the house. I've been so far doing several projects around the house with our new home here. But pretty much being with family, traveling as we can. But those are some of the things that we like, but I would say definitely bike riding. My wife says, okay, he's on that bike again. I know he's going somewhere. And of course, going out to the jazz concerts and we try to get to several during the summer and we found some venues here in the area that we're going to try out. That's great. And if people want to get in touch with you, they're watching this and they're saying, hey, I've either something about the school or I know this jazz concert that I might like, right? Absolutely. What would be the best way for them to get in touch with you? You can, of course, email me. Call the main office and my secretary will be able to make a meeting schedule. And of course right now, I'm there every day. So please feel free to drop in. If you want to come in and just say hi or you want to schedule a meeting to maybe talk more in depth about something and tell me about all the great things that are going on here at Amherst. At the same time, share my ideas. And then working together, we can really have a great community, a great school at Amherst Regional High School. Thank you. And your email address, if I'm not correct, is jonesgatrps.org. Well done. Well done already. Well, I know your inbox has not been shy, let's say. But absolutely, no, that's great. Anything else you'd like to share with the greater Amherst community of maybe watching this? Well, I'd just like to say I'm excited to be here. Can't wait to get started. Can't wait to meet people as the school starts. And on day one, in successive days afterwards, if you see this tall guy staying in front of school, greeting students, it's me. Even in wintertime, I have my winter coat on with my cup of coffee saying, come on in. We won't tell you about winter yet. Well, I can imagine. I knew it was kind of cold. It brings back your Boston days. Exactly, exactly. Well, we're thrilled to have you. Appreciate you coming on this show today and appreciate all the work you're doing hitting the ground running over at the high school. So thank you. Thank you. And thanks to you, the viewers, for coming to watch our episode. We'll be back in the fall with our more regular series. We hope you have a wonderful summer. Thank you.