The Buzzer would like to welcome Mr. Andrew Clayman to Hastings High School. We sat down with the new principal to ask him about his educational background and goals for this year at HHS. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Frieda Belasco (F.B.): So first of all, we were wondering if you could tell us about your background in education.
Andrew Clayman (A.C.): I started as a teacher in 2007. I helped to start a school. So it was a school with 100 ninth graders and six teachers, and over the course of four years we added a grade every year. So in addition to being an English teacher, I taught a philosophy course. I also got a chance to be a part of a school that was creating itself as I was there. I really got a chance to think about what I wanted, not just my classroom to be like, but what I wanted an entire school to feel like and be. That got me super interested in not just classroom instruction, but in leadership. I was there as a teacher, and then I became an assistant principal. And then in 2018 I became principal of a school in the South Bronx. So both of my schools were in the Bronx, but so I was a principal for six years in the most recent school that I was in, and then I made my way here.
Natalie Garson (N.G.): And what part of HHS initially appealed to you when you were looking around?
A.C.: There are many things that I really loved about being in New York City and in the Bronx. One thing that I felt was missing was [a] community, because many of my students either had to leave right after school to pick up a sibling from school or go to work because they had to help support their family. There weren’t a lot of extracurriculars after school. Athletics was really limited, performing arts were really limited. There wasn’t that kind of vibrant community. Also, in New York City, the high school that you go to is not based on where you live. You can just apply to any school in the city. So instead of knowing exactly what middle schools my students were coming from, my students were coming from 40 different middle schools, and they were coming from 70 different elementary schools; there was no cohesive understanding of what kids’ experiences were, and there wasn’t a connection with families like in Hastings. So the small, tight knit community in Hastings really attracted me.
F.B.: What are your goals for this school year, and how have they changed since the start of the school year?
A.C.: My number one, two, and three goals is to get to know people. As the leader of the building, I need to know people, and I need to know their concerns. I need to know their histories. I need to know their relationships. I need to know what their strengths are and where they’re trying to grow. I want to be in teachers’ classrooms in order to understand their teaching styles and what kinds of things happen in their classrooms. And for students, I want to know what extracurriculars they participate in, what their career goals are, what their home situations are like, whatever they feel comfortable sharing with me. I just really want to get to know people. Goal number four is to just use those opportunities to get to know people, to get a better sense of what types of things people would like to see, changed, adjusted, or improved. I don’t think I have a specific goal — I need to get to know people’s needs and perspectives before I settle on that one specific thing that I want to focus on.
F.B.: Have there been any surprises about the Hastings community or students here that you’ve noticed in the past few weeks?
A.C.: I’ve been pleasantly surprised with how supportive everyone has been. At my old job there was no director of special education, there was no director of guidance. I was the principal, and I was kind of in charge of everything, and so it’s been really nice to have a lot of really smart colleagues who I can ask for advice and get some perspective on why things are the way they are, and what problems they see and what solutions they are coming up with.
I’ve also been really pleasantly surprised by how excited students are about their classes. Every student that I talk to can identify multiple classes where they’re excited about what they’re learning and they’ve been inspired by the electives that they’re taking or a project that they’re doing. So you know, most of the conversations I’ve had with students about their experience of school show real excitement about the learning that’s happening in this building.
N.G.: Is there a fun fact that you want to share with the Hastings community?
A.C.: I am a dad. I have two young kids. My daughter is going to turn six next week, and my son is three years old, so I spend all of my time when I’m not here doing that job. But I also love doing all sorts of outdoor adventure things. I like rock climbing, mountaineering, biking, running, skiing, anything that is like outdoors activities.
F.B.: What inspired you to go into teaching in the first place?
A.C.: I think two things. One, I’ve always worked with young people. I was a camp counselor for eight years, for all of high school and all of college, and it’s just a lot of fun. I can’t imagine sitting behind a desk and just looking at a computer all day long. Kids have a sense of transparency, authenticity, and joy that adults sometimes lack. So I really like interacting with young folks. Also, I had a really transformative twelfth grade English teacher, and he taught a course called Theory of Knowledge. It was a philosophy course. And one of the key things that I learned in that class was how to analyze the structures and functions of language. I’ve always spoken slowly, but learning about this helped me realize that my inability to think of the right word wasn’t a fault in myself, but was just the way language worked. And so that experience made me feel like education in its best form can do that for lots of people; help them see the world in a new way and think about how that reflects on people’s relationship to others and the larger world.
