HFIS assistant principal started his new job Dec. 5
If you stop by the Highland Falls Intermediate School any morning between about 7:45 and 8, and any afternoon from about 3 to 3:15, you may see a slightly unfamiliar face handling much of the ‘traffic duties’ of the arrival and dismissal of students. You might want to take a minute to say hello to him if you have the opportunity, because he most definitely wants to get to know you.
‘He’ is new HFIS Assistant Principal Kenny Behr. He started his new job on December 5, and has completely enjoyed the last month and a half of getting to know his new co-workers, his new students, and this community.
“It’s been fantastic, Behr said from his office last week. “Everyone has been so welcoming.”
Behr came to the HFIS from an assistant principal role at a Poughkeepsie Middle School, where he worked for five years. Before that he was a physical education and health teacher in the South Bronx for seven years. He’s a native of Monroe, and currently lives in Washingtonville with his wife and two young daughters.
According to Behr, his job description is “doing anything necessary” as he works with Principal Yashira Maldonado, and he’s happy to do it all with a smile.
The main focus is, of course, being around the third to eighth graders educated in the building. He spends a portion of every day stopping into every classroom in the building; is at every lunch period with students (he’s using the time to get to know the names of students); is, as mentioned earlier, outside at arrival and dismissal; and attends after school activities — a ‘sports guy’, he’s been enjoying recent modified basketball games.
As assistant principal, Behr handles a lot of the discipline in the building, and he’s comfortable with that.
“I’m a big believer of learning from our mistakes,” he said, “as well as promoting the positive. Students who end up in my office are held accountable, but with my help, will also work to right their wrongs.”
Behr is being mentored in his new role by Nancy Noonan, a long-time educator who has served in quite a few interim roles in the Highland Falls-Fort Montgomery Central School District. Because she has spent time working at the HFIS, she’s been able to provide him with good insight about his new school during their weekly meetings.
Behr is enjoying the fact that the population of the HFIS is about 300 students — in his last school there were about 1000 students.
“Kids could get lost there,” he said, “not here.”
He gave a lot of credit to Maldonado and the building’s teachers and staff for the positive atmosphere of the HFIS that he walked into on his first day, and hopes he is adding to that.
In the weeks since the winter break he and Maldonado have held assemblies with all grade levels in the building to give everyone a chance to “reset” as the second half of the school year begins — “we went over what our expectations are,” he said.
Behr said he’s also hopeful he can be of help to the other adults in the HFIS; he’s got an open door policy for anyone who needs a minute to “check in” with him on any given day.
For his interview, Behr was wearing a relatively new HFIS sweatshirt and the classic HF-FMCSD male administrator maroon tie (yes, Deputy Superintendent Dr. Frank Sheboy, you started a trend!).
Back to meeting people, he says he “worked the doors” at two recent HFIS concerts, has been to a PTP meeting, and is happy to take a minute to ‘meet and greet’ any parent or community member who wants to stop by.
What else might you need to know about this young man who’ll be helping to shape local children?
He’s a Jets fan — season ticket holder, to be exact — and having grown up in the area, very familiar with Army sports. As a dad, he’s currently supporting his older daughter in her sports, cheerleading and tennis.
Behr attended West Virginia University, but, with an illness in the family, had to come back to New York partially through his college there; he finished his education at SUNY Cortland.
He’s from a proud military family; his dad is a Vietnam-era Navy veteran.
Half an hour into the interview, Behr was still smiling. He says that his wife has told him in recent weeks that she hasn’t seen him this happy with his work in a long time. That, HFIS community, is a very good sign of great things to come.
(Editor’s note: Full disclosure — while I didn’t know it going into the interview, Mr, Behr is the son & nephew of a great childhood friend of my husband. Another fun fact … when at WVU, albeit quite a few years later, he lived in the same dorm I did! It’s a very small world! MJP)
