By David Harry

Staff Writer

Jeanne Crocker, called the “accidental administrator” by incoming South Portland Assistant Superintendent Kathryn Germani, will retire at the end of June after 13 years as South Portland High School principal.

Crocker, 56, said changes in state pension laws in the budget signed by Gov. Paul LePage this week are the primary reason she is leaving the school for a part-time position with the Maine Principals’ Association.

Crocker said the MPA opening might not be available again, and the decision to leave the school did not come easily. 

Q: How are you feeling about retirement?

A: This is very emotional for me. I have been at this school for 28 years, 14 years teaching French and Spanish. I am, on the one hand, excited about my new position, but it wasn’t my plan to do that. So my departure is somewhat premature and I don’t think I have had to time to prepare myself emotionally to really separate from a place that I love and has been my home away from home for so long.

Q: At what point did you consider retirement?

A: It feels like very recently. I knew in late winter or early spring this other position was open and I made no attempt to apply. As the news seemed to be implying that nothing was sure and proposals (on pension reform) were coming and going, this would be my only window (to apply). I’m not yet retirement age, so I can’t retire and then apply to come back and do anything in the public schools. 

My only opportunity would be to retire and do something outside and I am woefully unqualified for most things. This would be the one thing that would be a good thing for me. It is a position that is not going to come open again in my working lifetime. 

Finally, I had to make a decision, and with things still in flux – what if the changes were next year instead of this year?

Q: So you will be assisting and training other public school principals?

A: It is something I have already been doing as part of my duties here. I have been a co-facilitator of a four-part series for new assistant principals and principals that Maine Principals’ Association has offered and I have really enjoyed doing that. I am very eager to access professional development for myself and to do it with colleagues so we are sharing and learning from each other. That’s a really effective model. 

Q: Were you really the “accidental administrator?”

A: It was a future thing – out there, but my kids were little at the time. So I served on the panel looking for a new principal. We were unable to find one and the then-superintendent of schools asked me if I would serve one year. I didn’t think I could do all the nights it takes. He said ‘I understand, you do what you can do.’ Part way through the year, it was opened up and I became the regular principal.

Q: What are the changes in peer relationships with teachers and the outlook on the school when you become principal?

A: I think it is perhaps the most wonderful way to assume a formal leadership position, to do it in a school community where you have established a reputation and a level of respect. So it was like this wonderful honeymoon time. I certainly didn’t know everything; there were some rude awakenings. ‘I’m responsible for the whole building? I don’t know anything about buildings.’ There were lots of things I had to learn how to do.

Q: And students – you were no longer sending them to the office – they were getting sent to you.

A: Exactly, and it is how you collaborate with the assistant principals whose primary duties deal with discipline and attendance. The way it has evolved here, we want to collaborate, the three of us. On a day-to-day basis, (discipline) is not really how I spend my time. I did one year as an assistant principal and hated it; I was delighted to go back to my classroom. It was not how I prefer to spend all my time.

Q: Where there days when you missed the classroom?

A: I did take advantage of a chance to co-teach a Spanish class for the whole year. The only teacher available was a French teacher who was certified to teach Spanish but had not done it in a while. I did all the planning, the majority of the instruction and all the correcting and assessment. It helped her scrape the rust off and for me to reconnect and stay grounded.

Q: You have also seen some tragedy hit the school, including the three graduates who died in the line of duty.

A: Two of them were within two weeks of each other. If there is anything positive to come out of the loss of the three young men, it was the community coming together to share loss, to grieve and to work through why. Not that there are answers you find, necessarily. There is growth and healing in doing that together. I think we did it as well as one can do it.

Q: Is there more of a health professional approach to dealing with crisis?

A: As schools now, we are much more about the whole student. High schools have evolved, we teach kids and there is a greater realization we are all human beings with ups and downs. In order to keep students engaged in their education and to support learning, we can’t ignore the social and emotional side any more than we can ignore it in adults. 

Q: What else has evolved in your experience?

A: It used to be only a part of the population went to high school and finished. Those days have passed and our mission is to prepare all our students for post-secondary education. We know for the jobs that exist now and the jobs of the future, a high school diploma is not enough. That has been a huge change.

Q: Do you ever feel like students are outpacing you in terms of technological knowledge?

A: We are seeing the amount of knowledge has exponentially grown and there is no way people can possibly learn all that. On the other hand, everything is at everyone’s fingertips. That was never the case. So we can’t just be filling kids with information and knowledge, it is skills we need to be helping young people to develop. They need to know where the information is and how to evaluate it, and how to take the information and use it to solve problems. That is a massive change.

The pace of change in our world has picked up and is not going to slow down. It is only going to increase. If the whole mission of schools is to prepare young people to be successful in their future, the way that has to happen now is different.

Q: Is this generation getting more competitive with grades and activities?

A: I think the balance this community has is a great match for me. We don’t have that level of stress we put on young people as some other schools. There is post-secondary learning for everybody and we have (Southern Maine Community College), the diamond in the rough. Some of our highest achieving students know they can go there for two years and transfer seamlessly to a more prestigious or purely academic institution, save tens of thousands of dollars in the process and be just fine.

Q: You were starting as principal as lockdowns were first being discussed. How does that feel to have as part of the environment?

A: The key word again is balance. It needed to evolve after Columbine, but to do so in a rational way. Do we really want metal detectors in South Portland and will that really stop someone who is determined to hurt us? So my leadership, I hope, is one of balance. The most important thing we can do is to be a healthy community where people trust each other. So if a student knows someone else is struggling, they might share that information with someone out of caring. 

There is the cyber-bullying piece, when we talk about our students being at risk, a level of harassment and bullying that can take place so easily now. It is just rampant and we have to keep people safe so they don’t fall into depression and hopelessness. One problem in our school is we have 27 exterior doors and parking all over the place, so we are not now in a position to be a really safe, secure school. We will be, though.

Q: What remains fun and constant about students?

A: I feel what I can do for students here is to have an influence that is greater than with my 120 students in one year as a teacher. And for some key kids, I can do something that is positive and life changing, those are pretty amazing things. What is constant is the joy I derive from being a part of this community and I get to do lots of different things. The people who come through here are good people who are in a wonderfully exciting time in one’s life. You have big struggles and you make big jumps and you are really defining who you are.

Q: How gratifying was the high school renovation vote last fall?

A: That will be one of the most tangible pieces for me. Had we not been able to do that, I would leave feeling heartbroken about that. It is so necessary. Teaching and learning is not primarily about a facility, but it is a factor. I am also appreciative of the support the community was able to show. It would not have happened without them.