New Joan MacQueen Middle School principal Casey Currigan stepped away from his desk and took a seat at the round table in his office recently to talk about his approach for improving the school and building a stronger relationship with the community.
A former Marine, Currigan’s path to Alpine certainly included hard work. Yet, everything he says over the course of an hour speaks less about discipline as a form of punishment and instead to the idea that he focuses on engaged, disciplined learning. His smile is constant.
Currigan brags about the newly redone engineering lab as only a proud educator would boast and says that every sixth grader is going through the new lab that he is hoping to build into a centerpiece of the school.
He also says that he is delighted with the sheer number of electives available to students this year, referencing how they connect to life skills: the culinary arts class has a planned competition based on hit Food Network show Chopped; the digital media class includes projects that would not be out of place in a marketing class.
Prior to the start of the school year, Currigan had the lunch tables moved in an effort to bring students together with a sense of community during lunch. Now, they all encircle the grassy quad and create a common space.
According to Currigan, that newly established common space brought students together so effectively that they began competing with video game Fortnite dances on the quad at lunch on the first day of school with school. He laughs and says Superintendent Richard Newman came out and joined in the spontaneous dance-off.
Diverting from the happy retelling of the kids dancing on the quad, Currigan veers into his thoughts on video games and the insight they provide about learning.
“Kids play video games at 100 percent, they are resilient and will not back down until they’ve mastered a level or completed a challenge. We have to teach them to do that for school,” Currigan said.
He went on to say that if students had one hour with absolutely no scheduled commitments, he would want them to turn everything off and just read a book.
“I want them to read. I want them to fall deeply into a good book. Don’t open the phone— it’s a black hole of time. Just read,” Currigan said.
Currigan’s statements focus on the positive but he recognizes that there are plenty of challenges to be found at the school. His to-do list includes such varied items as: fix the traffic problem in the parking lot, reestablish a PTA/PTSA, and rebuild a culture that extends out to the community.
“The thing I think all schools should strive to be is the focal point of the community. If we can create a vision here of what our character is, then walk that attitude out to the street… we can make a difference,” Currigan said.
He claims that nothing will change overnight but the optimistic quotes he inserts into conversation imply that he doesn’t let that stop him from persisting until he succeeds.
“You fail and learn, fail and learn, fail and learn… then you get to where you want to be,” Currigan said.
