Today, energetic and enthusiastic leader Andrew Marotta joins us to discuss how he expanded his impact on the educational leadership community. He is a High School Principal at Port Jervis HS, New York and has recently released his first book entitled The Principal. Join us as he shares how he navigated and left a positive imprint in the hearts and minds of students through the creation of positive culture.

The Principal

Andrew is a loving husband to his wife, Jennifer, and a supportive father to their three young children. In his professional life, Andrew has been at Port Jervis HS for fifteen years, serving as Assistant Principal for seven years and Principal for the past eight. He has led the transformation of PJHS, helping to raise the graduation rate from a low 60% to mid and upper 80%. 

Moreover, he recently launched a book entitled THE PRINCIPAL: Surviving & Thriving. 125 Points of Wisdom, Practical Tips, and Relatable Stories for all School Principals .

Through the book, he shares with readers tips, tricks, procedures, and methods he uses to juggle and navigate the educational system. 

“We’re trying to create a super awesome culture that kids would want to come to. You think about school — its rules, bell and all of that kind of stuff. Yeah, we have that stuff, but we loosen up. As long as the kid is doing his work and is involved in the class.” – Andrew Marotta

Creating Culture in School

Andrew shares a lot of stories that helped him build the positive culture that they have at PJHS. The sense of community from everyone was the greatest contributor to the positive culture among students and teachers.

Andrew points out the importance of culture and relationships. It is a fact that schools need technology in the classroom, good attendance rates, high SAT passing rates and huge graduation rates. However, he points out that what matters most is the process of achieving those high numbers.

“You have a clean school. You have a safe school, you have teachers that love kids  — those things are gonna happen. But if the kid is miserable, they don’t want to  come to school, they’re not gonna do well.” – Andrew Marotta

Mastery, Autonomy, and Purpose

Andrew acknowledges the fact that a business setting is different from a school setting. In a business setting, there are bonuses, a laid-out benchmark to hit and there is an actual product. In a school setting, the students are the product. 

He lives by the concept of “mastery, autonomy, and purpose.” He got it from Simon Sinek from a TED Talk and is proud to announce that he implements the ideology in PJHS. Through this, he respects each teacher’s autonomy on how they want to conduct classes but requires each teacher to set clear expectations from their students.

“People want consistency. People want the rules enforced and they want it consistently. But what might work for Jaime Jay, might now work for Joe Smith and might not work for Mary Jones.”  – Andrew Marotta

Download and listen to Expanding Impact On Education Leadership Community to learn more. Remember to let Andrew know you heard about him on Culture Eats Strategy with Jaime Jay!

Connect through the links below:

Website: AndrewMarotta