[img]2184|right|Reggie Brunson||no_popup[/img]Forget the candidates. The real stage at El Rincon Elementary belonged to only one person, fourth-year Principal Reggie Brunson.
His dynamic, free-lance remarks, pitching the triumphs, assets and aspirations of finally stabilized El Rincon to members of the Culver Crest Homeowners Assn., should be must viewing for every teacher and administrator in the School District.
The message: You can accomplish for your school what we are building here.
Half the audience wanted to enroll, Mr. Brunson made the campus and renewed environment so powerfully appealing.
Tall, young, square-shouldered, compelling of word, he correctly spurned emcee Rich Kissel’s offer of a microphone.
His unmistakably booming voice rocketed in waves across and around the cafetorium. He made El Rincon, a Stem school – science, technology, engineering and math – sound like an exciting campus for students and teachers, a setting where it is a privilege rather than an obligation to participate.
Obligatorily perhaps, he alluded to impressively improving test scores, but they were mere details in the vast educational picture where the emphasis is on gravitas.
Despite his richly embroidered accounting of student life, and achievement, in a new era at El Rincon, his elegant manner of delivery fiercely competed with his main message for a listener’s attention.
Mr. Brunson said he is seeking to develop a community of scholars and thinkers at El Rincon, possibly an unprecedented objective. He spoke of developing 21st century learning skills, communication, collaboration, critical thinking, creativity.
The excitement vibrated in his voice.
For example:
“We are trying to make our students thinkers,” he said. “Some of our students can give us a bunch of facts. They can’t take us through their reasoning process, though.”
That is one of Mr. Brunson’s main areas of focusing change.
But, again, the revved up style, enhanced by shining content, should put Mr. Brunson on the District’s main stage.
