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Howell has spent seven years building Helmwood Heights around trust, relationships and a small prize in the principal’s office
Howell has spent seven years building Helmwood Heights around trust, relationships and a small prize in the principal’s office

October is National Principals Month, and this year's theme is “Elevating the Voices That Transform Schools.” At Helmwood Heights, the voices doing the elevating are the ones who work beside him. An assistant principal, a counselor and three teachers described what Aaron Howell's leadership looks like up close, and they kept coming back to the same few things: he is present, he trusts them, and he makes sure people know they are seen.

Panther Academy Principal Carla Kuhn spent 20 years in kindergarten classrooms, and her teachers say it shows
Panther Academy Principal Carla Kuhn spent 20 years in kindergarten classrooms, and her teachers say it shows

The postcards arrive in the summer, when school is the last thing on anyone's mind. Each one comes from Panther Academy Principal Carla Kuhn.

It is one small way she lets her staff know she is thinking about them, said teacher Megan Hatfield.

October is National Principals Month, and this year's theme is "Elevating the Voices That Transform Schools." At Panther Academy, those voices belong to the teachers who work beside Kuhn every day.

Ashley Brawner went from an E'town library book about an astronaut to directing hypersonic flight tests for the Department of Defense
Ashley Brawner went from an E'town library book about an astronaut to directing hypersonic flight tests for the Department of Defense

Sometime around third or fourth grade, a young Ashley Brawner pulled a book off a shelf at the Elizabethtown library. It was about an astronaut, but not the kind she'd read about before. "I believe it was the first book that I read about an astronaut that was not previously a military pilot," Brawner said. The man in the book, Guion Bluford, the first African American to go to space, had gotten there as an aerospace engineer and an Air Force officer, not a test pilot. That distinction mattered to a child who hadn't yet considered that the people who build the machines might be just as essential as the people who fly them.

Before the day begins: The people who keep EIS running
Before the day begins: The people who keep EIS running

Before the first bus pulls in, before the first light comes on in a classroom, someone has already walked every hallway in the building. They've checked for hazards, adjusted the thermostat, and made sure the cafeteria is stocked and ready. In the winter, they've been outside since before sunrise, salting the sidewalks so nobody slips on their way in. Most students and staff never see that part of the day. National Custodian Day, celebrated Oct. 2, is EIS's chance to make sure it gets noticed anyway.