Once a Spartan always a Spartan. Principal Mark Greenfelder came back to lead the school and continue to spread his Spartan pride after graduating in 1987.
The end of the 2013 school year marked the conclusion of Mr. Greenfelder’s first full year as principal here at WS.
“Obviously for me, a compelling reason for coming back would be my connection to the school. I went to school here, my wife went here, and my brother and sister in laws went here. We’re all Spartans and have always been a part of the Spartan family,” said Greenfelder.
Greenfelder and his staff have worked intensely to provide a safe and secure learning environment for all the students and have made good progress.
Complete and absolute safety is no guarantee, but with the installment of the new door security system and security cameras placed throughout the school, it’s come a long way. Creating this kind of environment allows students and staff to feel comfortable during the school day and to focus on their academics with ease, without having to worry about outside risk factors.
“I’m glad knowing that our safety is a top priority to Greenfelder and the rest of the staff. It makes me feel like they genuinely care about us and our protection” said WS senior Matt Pastino.
Academically, WS has also improved significantly and will hopefully continue to improve. Greenfelder has led a push for increased collaboration and teamwork between WS staff, which allows equal grading and equal education for each student.
“A child’s grade should never be determined by a computer. I think that with teachers aligning grading practices, working together more and considering feedback from students, every student will have the same chance of getting good grades,” said Greenfelder.
This approach seems to have worked too. Last year’s overall GPA was at an all-time high, and WS had the most students in its history taking AP classes and scoring 3 or higher on the AP exam.
A few setbacks however made Greenfelder’s first year as principal a tad bit on the challenging side though. The negative publicity of the school due to last year’s video scandal involving a handful of WS students proved very disheartening for our principal and quite the daunting obstacle to overcome. But despite a few bumps in the road, Greenfelder’s first year as principle has been nothing but a gratifying experience.
“Watching students, staff and the community rally together to support the school during times of adversity and conflict has really kept it all in perspective. I’ll always work to help better WS and I want to leave it better than when I came,” said Greenfelder.