Episode 215: So What, Now What – A Conversation with Dr. Damon Lewis (NASSP MS POY Finalist)

Darrin Peppard (: 00:00

All right, my friends, welcome into episode 215 of the Leaning Into Leadership podcast. This is a very special episode. In fact, I'll take it a step further. This is a very special series, a six-part series over the next three weeks in which you'll get the opportunity to hear conversations that I have had with each of the national principal of the year finalists for NASSP's national middle school principal of the year.

and National High School Principal of the Year. Every Tuesday, starting today, for the next three weeks, you will hear from one of the middle school finalists. And every Thursday, starting in just a couple of days, you will hear from each of the three finalists for the National High School Principal of the Year. Before I go on, I have to say thank you to NASSP, thank you to Adam Davis, to Ron Nozoway, the entire team.

at NASSP. you for trusting me with each of these six finalists and giving me the opportunity to sit down and have these conversations with them. This is going to be an incredible series, folks. And by the way, we'll continue still releasing regular episodes every Sunday, but Tuesdays and Thursdays for the next three weeks, it is national principle of the year opportunities for those conversations. Man, it's going to be amazing. So here we go.

First up, Dr. Damon Lewis, the principal of Pones Ridge Steam Academy in Norwalk, Connecticut. Man, I'll tell you what, under his leadership, this middle school has seen a 23-point drop in chronic absenteeism, a surge in student achievement, expanded equity in accelerated coursework, and an unwavering commitment to systems-level change. Now, from his own journey growing up in Bridgeport and attending UConn on a football scholarship,

To becoming a passionate advocate for public education and equity, Dr. Lewis brings an amazing and authentic voice to leadership. This episode is filled with real talk about transformation, culture, vision, and this relentless belief that every single student matters. I can't wait for you to hear this conversation, so let's waste no time at all. Let's dive into the story, the vision, and the impact of Dr. Damon Lewis, finalist

Darrin Peppard (: 02:27

for the NASSP National Middle School Principal of the Year.

Darrin Peppard (: 00:00

All right, everybody. Welcome back into the Leaning Into Leadership podcast. Very, very special edition of the podcast this week. We are sitting down and having conversations with each of the three finalists for the NASSP's Middle School Principal of the Year. For those of you just tuning in, just kind of wrapping your brain around that, NASSP is the National Association of Secondary School Principals and

three individual middle school principals from the collective group of principals of the year across every one of the states and DC have been selected as finalists for the very prestigious National Middle School Principal of the Year. And we're sitting down today for this conversation with Damon Lewis, who is the principal of Poneus Ridge STEAM Academy in Norwalk, Connecticut.

Now I'll tell you this, under Damon's leadership, Pone's Ridge STEAM Academy, which is a 6'8 middle school, has reduced chronic absenteeism from 31 % to 8 % in one year. Holy smokes, can't wait to hear about that. His school has increased the number of minority students in the Gifted and Talented program and the number of female students in Accelerated Math. He has championed an equity-driven and every day counts culture.

where PSAT scores for eighth grade students outpace national, state, and district metrics. He's the facilitator for black male administrator cohort in the district, and he mentors younger principals. He has expanded course offerings to include coding, computer science, robotics, music technology, and immersive media, more than 20 afterschool clubs, his Hispanic parent group, and in-school food pantry for families.

and a care closet. Wow. Amazing stuff happening at Pones Ridge Steam Academy Middle School in Norwalk, Connecticut. Dr. Damon Lewis, welcome into Leading Into Leadership.

Damon Lewis (: 02:00

You

Thank you, Darren, for that great introduction. I appreciate the acknowledgement and recognition ⁓ of what we're doing at Poland Church Middle School. And I always use the term we because it is it is a we award. It's a we statement. It's a we school and in leadership. We all know that we don't work in silos, right? And we have surround ourselves with great people. And ⁓ I'm just happy to be here and happy to be a finalist for this national award. So thanks for having me.

Darrin Peppard (: 02:40

Yeah, absolutely. So I want to have you tell us a little bit of your journey. And I want to preface it with this. Regular listeners and watchers of the show know that I was a 2016 Principal of the Year. And I remember showing up in Washington, DC and meeting the other, you know, all of the different state principals of the year and honestly building some really, really good relationships over time with all of them. But we sometimes will make this

Damon Lewis (: 02:45

Mm-hmm

You

Darrin Peppard (: 03:07

just assumption that everybody has walked the same walk in order to get into that room. And we know that's not true. So I would love to hear just a little bit of Damon's journey to where now I know this is your 10th year as the principal there at Poneus Ridge. So share a little bit of your history with our listeners.

Damon Lewis (: 03:11

Hahaha

arge urban high school, about: 1700

It was maybe 99 % minority and 100 % free reduced lunch. And at that time, I was really introduced to the numbers game and data and I didn't even know it. Class sizes were pretty big. 30 kids, possibly 25 deaths, 18 books. You know, the typical.

So I'm sitting here and I'm like, you I've got to run through every single hallway just to get to class, just to make sure I get a seat and I get a book. ⁓ So at that young age, I discovered that things were inequitable and not, you know, proportionate to what people needed, ⁓ specifically students and families from marginalized communities. ⁓

Darrin Peppard (: 04:33

Yeah.

Damon Lewis (: 04:54

And at that time when I graduated from Harding High School, I'm going to say that's where my achievement gap was birthed, honestly, because I graduated eighth in my class in high school. Honor society member. But then I go to college. I went to University of Connecticut and I'm taking a non credit math class because I didn't do well enough on the

math entry exam at UConn. And here I'm sitting here like, wait a minute, I was eighth in my class. I was a National Honor Society member. I did this and I did that, but I'm sitting in this class. ⁓ So it's never a knock on Harding. I love Harding High School with all of my heart. I talk about it every single time. I had the opportunity to speak with people, but it really, really taught me ⁓ how to be very resourceful.

Darrin Peppard (: 05:31

down.

Damon Lewis (: 05:54

how to ⁓ not take anything for granted, how to ⁓ make sure that I had things in place for me because I wanted to be successful and that actually started my walk into education somewhat. ⁓ So then I go to UConn, I was fortunate enough ⁓ to go to UConn on a full football scholarship. A lot of people don't know that. So I went to school on a full football scholarship. So was a true student athlete.

Darrin Peppard (: 06:21

It's awesome.

Damon Lewis (: 06:23

and I had four full scholarship offers coming out of high school. So I chose UConn because it was close to home and I'll talk about that more a little bit later. ⁓ So I'm at UConn and mind you in eighth grade my parents got divorced, they split up. Okay, so I go to UConn and at the beginning of my 12th grade year, let me go back, the beginning of my 12th grade year, ⁓ my father after my family got divorced,

My father was tragically murdered. so divorce in eighth grade. Father's shot and killed in 12th grade. I go to Yukon with a lot of stuff on my heart, a lot of stuff on my chest. ⁓ I didn't go to counseling. I never, because it just wasn't big back then. You kind of pulled yourself up by the bootstraps and you did what you had to do to make it. So I'm

Darrin Peppard (: 07:08

Yeah.

Damon Lewis (: 07:22

going to UConn with my mother's drive in me and ⁓ I'm thinking in my head, you it was really the drive and I called it the drive because it was the mental drive and that inner metal to be successful and not go back to what transpired. But it was also that physical drive to actually be the best student athlete as well. So there was a lot going into it. And I originally went to UConn ⁓ to major in business.

Right? So I wanted this huge corner office. I wanted the million dollar salary, know, X, Y, and Z. But thank God my mother, she continued to send me letters and articles from our local newspaper about kids that I had grown up with that were getting arrested, that had gotten killed.

that were not doing the right thing. And I'm like, God, I just graduated with those guys a couple months ago. know, like what's so right then and there, Darren, ⁓ towards the end of my freshman year, I said, you know what, how selfish is it of me to sit in a corner office and make money when there's people that look like me and people from my community that are not doing well, not doing good. ⁓

So right then I changed my major to English education right then and there. I gave up the business dream. I gave up the million dollars before I even had it. And I said, and I said, you know what? Education is the best way to give back and educating people about, you know, fight through adversity, going through some fire, right? Going through some fire, but being able to come out on the other side as a different person with a little bit of heat, you know?

Darrin Peppard (: 08:53

Ha ha.

Damon Lewis (: 09:14

Now I've got the fire, but I've gone through it. So now what am I going to do? ⁓ So I changed English education, graduated ⁓ UConn with degrees in English and sociology. was a double major. ⁓ I ended up being the captain of our football team in 1994. I was one of three. I was a tri-captain. So a lot of people don't know that about me because I don't talk about football a lot because that was, you know, in the past.

Darrin Peppard (: 09:14

Yeah.

Yeah.

Damon Lewis (: 09:43

It's driven me and it's made my journey so much more appreciative because of the things that I once had.

and the things that I have now. So we talked to...

when we talked before we started recording when I told you I don't know what I'm doing sitting here.

Darrin Peppard (: 10:17

Yeah.

Damon Lewis (: 10:20

That's part of it. ⁓ I graduate, I go into education, start as a paraeducator. So I really started as a paraeducator. I taught high school English for a couple years and then I went back and I received my master's in school counseling. So then I became a school counselor. And I went back, ironically, Darren, I went back.

I was a paraprofessional at my former high school. went right back to Harding. I graduated. I went right back to Bridgeport, Connecticut. I did my years of teaching in Bridgeport, Connecticut in the same high school. Then I went back to school as I noted to get my counseling degree. And I said, you know what? I want to see something different. I've been in urban education as an urban education student, as an urban education educator. So I said, you know,

Darrin Peppard (: 10:55

Yeah.

Damon Lewis (: 11:16

I want to see something different because it's it's got to be different. It can't be it can't be like this all over. So and again, never ever say anything disparaging about Harding High School. I love it. Love the people love my mentors, but it just pointed out a lot again. Love Harding High School. Shout them out all the time.

Darrin Peppard (: 11:23

Yeah.

Damon Lewis (: 11:43

So I took a school counseling job in a neighboring town in a suburb where it's totally different. The demographic was totally different. It was maybe 95 % white and 5 % minority. And I was the only minority staff member in the building of a large suburban high school of about 2,500. Okay? And I absolutely loved it. I absolutely loved it, Darren, because...

Yukon when I went to Yukon Yukon was predominantly ⁓ white so I learned I I was used to the setting you know, I was used to the setting I tell everyone can you just imagine a black male Football player who also was an English major put that in your head ⁓ Right put that in your head right black male football player studying Shakespeare and Chaucer and Old English

Darrin Peppard (: 12:31

Yeah.

Damon Lewis (: 12:41

Right at 6 to 235 pounds. So ⁓ so I went to this suburban high school great experience. And then I took my first administrative job ⁓ at an alternative high school and it was 55 students, but it was 55 students. Right that had been that had been removed from their

Darrin Peppard (: 12:46

You

Cough

Yeah. yeah.

Damon Lewis (: 13:10

traditional high schools and you know ankle bracelets monitors probation officers and I did that for two years and you know what I absolutely love that I just Darren I just love to work. I I love to work. I love what I do And thank goodness for people that believed in me and didn't give up on me when ⁓

Darrin Peppard (: 13:20

Yeah.

Damon Lewis (: 13:36

when times weren't that good.

⁓ so then I did that for two years. I finished my doctorate degree. So at that time I've when I finished my doctorate there and I had accumulated five degrees. Okay. So now I'm sitting here with five degrees, my high school diploma. ⁓ and my dad had missed all of them. So I know he's watching from up above, but so then I said, you know what? I'm going to have my doctor. I'm going to apply to Norwalk public schools.

Darrin Peppard (: 14:01

Yeah.

Damon Lewis (: 14:09

So applied to Newark Public Schools, had a first round interview, second round interview. By the time I got home from my second round interview, there was a message on the phone and said, you know what, we wanna hire you as an assistant principal. And at that time I had a choice whether to go to the high school, one of the high schools in Newark or the middle school, okay? ⁓ So I'd done the high school route already, right? So I said, let me try the middle school.

I've never done middle school. So I landed up at Poneus Ridge Middle School and I started as an assistant principal and I did that for four years and I learned so much. learned I was almost back into a similar environment as I was at Harding ⁓ where I went and where I where I had my early education career. ⁓ So I go back. I go to Poneus Ridge and I'm the assistant principal and I learned I learned a lot. got the load of staff.

⁓ When I went to PONUS, PONUS was honestly considered probably PONUS is Cinderella story, Darren. We weren't always where we are now. We had a lot of issues in the building or concerns, high suspension rate, low student achievement, ⁓ more kids sometimes in the office than in class. ⁓

So it was a huge culture shift. It was a change in staff mindset. It was a change in student mindset. It was a change in family mindset, community mindset, to now, Darren, we are the most coveted middle school in the city. We have 11 elementary schools in our city and we have kids from 10 of them. Because we have an open choice system.

Darrin Peppard (: 16:03

Yeah.

Damon Lewis (: 16:04

So kids can choose and families can choose where they want to go. So, ⁓ I you one says ponies is like the Cinderella story ⁓ a lot of people say it's a They make it analogous to to the Drake song started from the bottom now. We're here. So So we've actually gone through a lot in our building and it's a lot of you know getting I'm a big fan of Jim Collins and good to great and great by choice huge fan

Darrin Peppard (: 16:19

Yeah, yeah.

Damon Lewis (: 16:33

Huge fan. You know, we had good people on the bus. We really did. ⁓ But Jim Collins talks about now you've got good people on the bus, you got to get them in the right seats. You know, you got to get them in the right seats. So now we've got the right people in the right seats over the past couple of years and things are really starting to move. ⁓ Everything's starting to move in the right direction. And, you know, I truly believe that education ⁓ can change ⁓ the life trajectory.

Darrin Peppard (: 16:44

Yeah.

Damon Lewis (: 17:03

of someone. It really can't. did for me. So, you know, if it could for me, why can't it for other people? I'm trying to be that example of what education can do and what belief in kids and scholars can do to help people achieve and change your life situation. know, education is something I'm trying to, I'm trying to, we are trying to collectively put an end to public housing.

Darrin Peppard (: 17:07

Yeah.

Damon Lewis (: 17:33

poverty discrimination ⁓ Vast inequities in marginalized communities regardless of skin color Regardless of skin color. There are poor black people poor brown people poor white people. There's it's it Poverty doesn't have a half a color, right death death death doesn't have a death doesn't have a color when it knocks it knocks and when poverty knocks and hits it doesn't care what color you are so

Darrin Peppard (: 17:52

Yeah.

Damon Lewis (: 18:00

Through education, we're trying to provide all these opportunities to kids and families and show them the belief that, you know, if you remain focused and you surround yourself with good people, that you can be successful. know, success is relative. But someone may say, just being successful for me, Dr. Lewis, is I just want to move out and get my family out of public housing and I get older. That's my success story. And you know, someone else's success story is

Darrin Peppard (: 18:27

Yeah.

Damon Lewis (: 18:31

I just want to be able instead of getting to being able to afford a hamburger. I want a cheeseburger. I can spend that extra 50 cents and get a piece of cheese on it. know, so, you know, and through at Poneus Ridge where we're trying to we are not trying we're providing all these opportunities to kids that typically may not happen in urban schools. I mean, as you read, we're providing coding and computer science and

Darrin Peppard (: 18:38

Yeah.

Yeah.

Damon Lewis (: 19:00

digital literacy and immersive media and we set those expectations and the kids don't have a choice not to meet the expectation. Like there's no choice. You don't have a choice. You we talk about, you talked about everyday counts, Jim. We don't waste a day. We do not waste a day. And we talk about, you know, I talk about a lot the, the five P's right. I don't know if you're familiar with the five P's proper preparation prevents poor performance.

I'll say it again proper preparation prevents poor performance. We have made a hard-lined effort in our building to be intentional to be deliberate around everything. We nothing happens by mistake. Right hope hope and faith are not strategies. Well, let's just hope that it works right? We'll pray that it works not hope and faith are not strategy.

Darrin Peppard (: 19:53

Yeah, right.

Damon Lewis (: 19:58

intentional, deliberate actions, steps with your instructional leadership team, with your teacher team forms, with your scheduled walkthroughs and observation and your feedback cycles and your loops and your focusing on your instructional core. And if one changes, the other has to change. And we've got to make sure that kids are always, always right. Working on grade level standards and tasks.

And if kids need those scaffolds and those differentiated materials to get there, God darn it, we got to get it to them. We cannot waste a day. ⁓ We can't. We only have six and a half hours a day, Darren. Our building opens at eight o'clock and we get out at two fifty. That's a small amount of time. We've got to maximize every single second because a lot of our kids, some of our kids are coming in below grade level.

Darrin Peppard (: 20:39

Yeah.

Damon Lewis (: 20:57

So we've got to ramp up, right? We've got to ramp things up. And again, I talked about, you know, accelerating and intervening simultaneously. That's our building. That's all buildings, I hope. That you're pushing the kids that need to be pushed and also supporting the kids that need to support. I mean, that's a classroom. You've got a classroom with kids that have a 1200 Lexile level in eighth grade, but you've got some kids that have a 600 Lexile.

And the staff is like, Dr. Lewis, what am I? We've got to do, we've got to do. What does that kid need? Does that kid have to go to high school for an advanced math class? Can we set up a carpool? We take everything's on the table. Everything is on the table, Darren.

Darrin Peppard (: 21:39

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, so I gotta ask, ⁓ mean, some amazing, amazing things. And one, I mean, again, you you have rendered a podcaster speechless for almost 20 minutes, ⁓ which almost never happens. ⁓ But man, no, don't apologize. I have absolutely enjoyed just listening to you.

Damon Lewis (: 21:59

I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

Darrin Peppard (: 22:06

And I have several things in my head I want to jump out and ask and just really dig in for our listeners who are thinking, my gosh, how do I create that? How do I create that? How do I create that? And not from a program perspective. I wanted to ask from the very beginning in a while, how do you cut absenteeism from 31 % to 8 % in a year? But this is more now in my head, not just about individual.

Damon Lewis (: 22:23

Mm-hmm.

Darrin Peppard (: 22:36

things that you guys have addressed, but rather a full system within your school. And what it really takes me to is what is clearly, clearly a very vivid vision in your head of where Pwnus Ridge needs to be, and that you're well on your way to that vision. For our listeners, let's go in this direction. Talk about

Damon Lewis (: 22:40

Hmm.

Darrin Peppard (: 23:06

in your time there. So you've been there now, it sounds like 14 years. You were an assistant principal for four years, 10 years as the principal. Over time, certainly that compelling vision has shaped itself over time. What are some of the things that maybe have helped you create that vision? When did that vision start to become very clear for you for the school? And maybe what are some things you've done

Damon Lewis (: 23:17

Mm-hmm. ⁓

Darrin Peppard (: 23:35

to ensure, because to me it sounds like everyone who is a part of the staff at PONUS knows what the vision is and they know what their responsibility is in that vision. That to me is great leadership. So talk about creating that, finding that vision and creating that vision.

Damon Lewis (: 23:37

Mm, mm, mm.

Mm-hmm.

⁓

You know what it's ⁓ thank you for the question Darren it's I always ⁓ talk about the principal chair and leadership and it's analogous to To get in your first house or your first condo is something you first own right? I say it's going to take Three to five or six years to get it exactly how you want it Right, you don't buy the house and it all and it already has

Darrin Peppard (: 24:20

Very true.

Damon Lewis (: 24:22

the stainless steel refrigerator and this marble countertops and it's it's analogous to buying your first house, right? You put up the fence. It takes some time. Please know it doesn't happen overnight. It takes some courageous conversations. It takes some ⁓ some reflection. It takes ⁓ getting as I noted the right people on the bus, but also in the right seats on the bus.

⁓ It takes focus groups, student and staff and families ⁓ and community members. It takes a lot of patience. It really does. And you can't, if it's, something's going to be sustainable, we know leadership, it's gotta, it's gotta have teeth in it. It can't be a fly by night. And as I know, the hope and faith are on the strategy. So everything in our building,

is system and structured run on systems and structures even down to the point where we have an electronic system for students to sign out to use the restroom. We have a system for that. We have a structure for that. ⁓ We're a PBIS school. So we have systems and structures around that as well. But ⁓ again, it takes some crazy conversations in the way the way that I went about it is, you know, I sat down. I met with every staff member.

Right? I visited every local church in Norwalk that fed into my school. And I stood up as a visitor and I said, hi, I'm Dr. Damon Lewis. I know I was the assistant principal at Poland Street Steam Academy, but now I'm the principal and I'm inviting you into our building. I have something that we call walk through Wednesdays. The third Wednesday of every month, I open up our front doors to our school and we let in anyone.

that wants to come in for a walking, talking tour throughout our building in real time with our students and staff. So if something happens, it happens. Nothing's choreographed, nothing's scripted. And we get families that come in from our elementary schools. We get ⁓ community agencies that come in, that come in and walk around and they get either myself, my assistant principal,

Two of my assistant principals and or my dean who I have to shout out. Evan Byron, assistant principal, fantastic. Colleen Brosnan, assistant principal, fantastic. Ashley Glow, dean of students at Pone Ridge, fantastic. We have a great team, we really do. So, walk through Wednesdays, we take this walk and talking tour, we gain feedback from families. What do you like, what do you don't like? We don't go in class, we don't disrupt instruction, but we get their feedback. What's working, what's not working? What do need to work on?

That happened pre-COVID. COVID put a break on everything. So we started that back this year and we get 10 to 15 families every Wednesday, every month on the third Wednesday. So we talk about the things that have happened to shape that culture and to bring people in and to invite all stakeholders and know that our classroom, our building just doesn't exist in those four walls, so it doesn't classroom. It goes out to the community, right? With our community agencies and all the families

that come into our building and all the community agencies that have spaces in our building for our students. it's again, there's not a secret sauce. It's a lot of roll your sleeves up and just get the work done. You can't say, I want this to happen because I know as a believer that that that that prayer and faith without work is just prayer, right?

Darrin Peppard (: 28:00

Yeah.

Damon Lewis (: 28:13

You've got you've got to pray, but you've got to work too. ⁓ You know what I mean? And and there's, know, this justice. We've got this huge buy in and through those individual conferences with teachers and we tell them the vision. This is where we're going that all kids can learn regardless of social economic background, whether they get dropped off in the latest Mercedes Benz or.

Darrin Peppard (: 28:18

Yeah.

Damon Lewis (: 28:40

their grandmother drops them off in a station wagon or they get dropped off in an Uber. It is our obligation to make sure kids are learning and kids are doing what they need to do to be successful. And I and our team is going to hold you accountable for it. We're gonna hold you accountable for it. And it's, don't want to say it's that simple because it's not, but it's a lot of work and it's a lot, like I said, a lot of reflection, a lot of inward,

inward thought. I think one of the most underrated skills in leadership Darren ⁓ and I think people take this for granted. I think one of the most underrated skills in leadership is listening. Okay, when you when you listen, that's where you get I mean, don't say a word throw a prompt out there and just listen.

Darrin Peppard (: 29:29

100%.

Damon Lewis (: 29:39

We've had staff, we still have staff focus groups, because we're constantly trying to improve. What can we do better? What can we offer? ⁓ How can we tighten this up? And we sit there as an admin team and we listen. We don't talk. We put the prompt up and we listen. And we take copious notes and then we meet as a team and we discover certain themes.

right in through lines, right through lines what people are really saying. ⁓ And we develop that that that problem of practice. You we got that we have the data, right? We get the data from the focus groups and then from the data there. We develop that problem of practice and then from the data in a problem of practice. We develop that theory of action, right? If we do this and we do this then this will happen, you know, so we take all those things and we develop these intentional

Darrin Peppard (: 30:16

Yeah.

Damon Lewis (: 30:35

deliberate steps, you know, and as a leader.

selfishly and competitively, you know, I kind of drew a line in the same enough is enough. Pwness is not going to be. At the bottom anymore. We've got great teachers. We got great staff. We've got enough is enough. Now, if you're on the boat with that and you want to come along, come on. If not. I'd hate to lose you, but I'm not going to hold on your leg saving you. If you don't think this is the right

place for you and it's nothing personal I tell the staff it's nothing personal but if your vision is not aligning with our school vision then maybe this is not the place for you I'm sorry that's the truth I could only speak to truth I glory speak the truth there that's it

Darrin Peppard (: 31:26

So very well said. Yeah.

Yeah. But you know, Damon, so many, so many school leaders struggle with saying that. So many school leaders are, you know, and we hear it all the time, right? You know, there's a teacher shortage and, you know, I'm worried that I'll lose people and I won't be able to fill the role. And so they tolerate or they accept less than.

Damon Lewis (: 31:40

No.

Darrin Peppard (: 31:57

And you said something before we hit the record button. And I just want to touch on this quickly, but you said that kind of the mantra at PONUS has become, so what, now what? And you don't get to a place where you're comfortable saying that, where it's not just a cliche without being so crystal clear about number one, that vision, number two,

how you're going to get there. And number three, the alignment. Not just you, not just you and your leadership team, not even just you, the leadership team and the staff, but clearly the community. You are all aligned. I, man, I can't say enough about what great leadership that is. There's zero question in my mind, not that I had any from the beginning, why you are a finalist for the National Middle School Principal of the Year.

Damon Lewis (: 32:30

Hmm.

Thank you.

Darrin Peppard (: 32:55

Holy smokes,

what you guys have going on is absolutely amazing. So talk real quick about so what, now what. How has that become a mantra?

Damon Lewis (: 33:05

You know what we I'm going to contradict myself for a second because they say, when you have too many priorities, you have no priorities, right? If you have 10 priorities, you've got none. So we have a couple of mantras there and I will say so what now? What is one? ⁓ Progress, not perfection is another one. ⁓ Everyday counts is another one. ⁓ Be better than yesterday. Just be better than yesterday. Our kids need you to be.

1 % better than yesterday. That's it. So, so what now what is I'm a young man. I don't make a lot of excuse. I don't make any excuses. Okay. ⁓ I learned at a young age that excuses and one of my mentors told me the statement. He said Damon, you're going to face a lot of things in your life and the world doesn't want to hear about excuses regardless. They said specifically said

Especially as a black man, the word doesn't want to hear excuses. So he always told me said excuses are monuments of nothingness that build bridges to nowhere. Okay, he said he said you're young you won't remember this, but I remembered it Darren. He said excuses are monuments of nothingness that build bridges to nowhere nowhere. You're not going anywhere with an excuse.

Darrin Peppard (: 34:22

Yeah.

Damon Lewis (: 34:35

So the so what now what kind of plays into that and I I addressed it a little bit. ⁓ We get a lot of our kids that come from our elementary feeders, right in the past in the past and I'm make sure I'm emphasizing the past our elementary feeders were the three lowest performing feeders in the district and they all came to PONOS. Okay, they all came to PONOS.

And so my mantra and our mantra was so what now what we've got them. We what what what are we going to do now that they're in our system and in our school community, right? You were a high school principal there middle school high school principal. Okay, so I'm sure because I know my staff used to do it used to do it in middle school.

Darrin Peppard (: 35:23

Yep.

Damon Lewis (: 35:31

What are they doing in fifth grade? ⁓ Right, right, right. And as a high school principal, what are they doing in eighth grade? How come they're... So we adopted this model. So what, now what? We've got kids coming in below grade level. Okay, we know that. So what are we gonna do about it? We're still gonna hold them to grade level standards with scaffolds and differentiated tasks and bridges to get to that standard.

Darrin Peppard (: 35:33

yeah, it's always blame down, right? Yep, it's blame down. Yeah.

Yeah. yeah.

Damon Lewis (: 35:58

We're still gonna have the same expectations in the classroom. We're still gonna have tier two interventions for reading and math, right? We're still gonna have strong tier one instruction. So what is the excuse? We cannot say that because this kid's life is on the line. His life's on the line. And it's our job to make sure that we do the best we possibly can

before this kid leaves in eighth grade. And that's why I wanted to point out, we may get them that way in sixth grade, but we take those PSATs in eighth grade, right? And we've exposed them to those standards for three years, Darren, we've exposed it to them. So when they take that PSAT in grade eight, which the standards align assessment, they're outpacing, outgrowing the district, the state, and the nation. Outgrew in points. I mean,

Darrin Peppard (: 36:37

Yeah.

Damon Lewis (: 36:57

Plus 35 points. The nation may have grown 10 points. I mean, we're still below a little bit, but our growth was ridiculous because we adopted this so what now what attitude and that every single kid matters. Every single kid and I have and I say this Darren and have this passion. I know I like to talk on my hands because go back to our about 20 minutes ago.

I was that kid. I was the achievement gap in high school. I graduated eighth in my class and I still took a no credit math class. Right? And so I see myself in the kids. So selfishly, I will say I take this job really personal Darren. I do. I take it personal and

Darrin Peppard (: 37:28

Yeah.

Yeah.

Damon Lewis (: 37:54

I'm glad I didn't sit in the corner office and make a million dollars. I'm glad I didn't do it, you know, because I wouldn't be in the situation I'm in and impacting the lives that I'm impacting and working with a great staff and great kids and great families and identifying, you know, data. Everything's based on data. And I thought the data that we have developed out that problem of practice.

Darrin Peppard (: 37:59

Ha ha ha.

Damon Lewis (: 38:24

and then develop that theory of action and then go to work. Then go to work on chronic absenteeism, increasing the number of minority students in gifted and talented programs, increasing the number of females in accelerated math. That all start reducing our suspension numbers. We found out last year, two years ago, that 15 % of our kids accounted for 80 % of our suspensions.

So Dan, what do you think my team did last summer, two summers ago, and we'll do it again this summer? What do you think we did over the summer? We went to houses, we knocked on doors, we sat in the living rooms with the kids and their parents, we developed goals, we talked about where they see themselves, right? We did, and to me, doesn't everybody do that? I say, doesn't everybody do that? That's what I, and.

Darrin Peppard (: 38:55

Right. Yeah.

There you go.

Unfortunately,

no. Yeah.

Damon Lewis (: 39:24

Doesn't everybody

do that? I mean, you identify a data point. You have time in the summer. The kids aren't there to you have, you know, you've got a schedule for next year, but we look at the data and thank goodness. Like I for my team is great. Evan Byron, I saw them on again. Evan Byron, Ashley Glow, Colleen Brosnan. We've really worked well together. And I think I know we work well together because you look at the four, the leadership compass.

the north, the south, the east and the west, we all represent one of the points. So we don't, have one of us is a north, one of us is a south, one of us is east, one of us is the west. So we balance each other. Again, that's getting the right people on the bus in the right positions. Nothing, Darren, in leadership happens by mistake. Nothing. It's all intentional and deliberate. Everything.

Darrin Peppard (: 40:16

Absolutely.

Man, such powerful stuff. you know, I'll go back to something you said when you started that, that particular section that, yeah, you have multiple different mantras, but here's the thing. Every single one of those, every single one of those, as you were going through them, what kept coming up in my mind is growth mindset, growth mindset, growth mindset, growth mindset. That is 100 % what you are saying and what you are bringing to.

your school, I think it's absolutely phenomenal. And, and man, I'll tell you what our time is absolutely flown by in front of us. And there's there's there's, which is totally fine. And I'm sure everybody listening is has their time has flown listening. So there's two more questions I want to get to quickly. Obviously, you know, ⁓ I'll ask the question that I ask everybody here on the show, you know, how you're leaning into leadership, and I'm to do that one last. So let me ask this one. Again, this is a very special

Damon Lewis (: 41:08

Mm-hmm.

Darrin Peppard (: 41:21

episode a very special series with the finalists for middle school and high school national principals of the year through NASSP. Let's just talk very quickly about that. Let's talk very quickly about, you know, one, how did you find out first that you were Connecticut Middle School Principal of the Year? I'm always curious to hear. My students threw a huge assembly for me and my daughter was out on the floor when they announced it.

Damon Lewis (: 41:33

Wow.

Yeah, yeah.

Nice.

Darrin Peppard (: 41:50

which was really amazing. ⁓ And then of course, how did you find out about being a finalist? And this is giving you a new platform. What do you want to do with that platform? So quickly, those three questions. I said it was one, I made it three.

Damon Lewis (: 42:06

That's okay. I Have to say when I found could I just walk you through really quickly Connecticut's process so I was not I was nominated by Our superintendent and Heidi peer of each our our school quality review ⁓ staff member So she emailed me and she said that's Lewis I want to nominate you for Connecticut State principal of the year x y and z and my evaluator was sitting here in my office because she was doing a visit at the time and

Darrin Peppard (: 42:13

Yeah, absolutely.

Damon Lewis (: 42:36

⁓ I said to my evaluator, Ms. Shepherd, Maryann, who's fantastic as well, shout to Maryann Shepherd. ⁓ I said, what, do you know anything about this? Do you know anything about this? And she said, maybe you should go for it. So I brought it back to my team, my admin team, and I said, I'm him and in hall. We've got a lot of work to do. And Evan Byron, love him, love my whole team.

said, Damon, you've got to do it. You've got to do it. I said, okay. Then I brought it home to my beautiful family, my wife, Keisha. I have three children, daughter, Saray, and I have twins, Elijah and I. I brought it back to them and they said, you know what, you got to do it. So in a long-sure shirt, Connecticut, you have an eight-page application, which includes five essay questions.

They called me and they told me I was a finalist for the state. And then they said, it's you and another principal in the state of Connecticut, and we have to do a site visit. So they come and do a site visit on top of that. So they do a site visit and they interview parents, they interview students, they interview teachers, they interview central office staff, they interview me, they take a walking tour of the building.

with some of our student ambassadors. They do all this. They did this on a Tuesday afternoon. And Darren, they called me Wednesday afternoon and said, Damon, you are the Connecticut Middle School Principal of the Year. And I was driving home and I admit I almost crashed because I was crying my eyes out. I was crying my eyes out. And just to show how aligned we are.

Darrin Peppard (: 44:27

Yeah.

Ahem.

Damon Lewis (: 44:34

I was actually talking to my sister principal, Byron on the phone and my Bluetooth and a strange number popped up and I said, Evan, hold on for a minute. And I clicked over and a guy from Connecticut called me. So Evan, I clicked back over and Evan was actually the first one to know that I won. And then I hung up with Evan and called my wife, you know, instantaneously. ⁓ And she was happy for me. She's crying. So we're both crying on the phone.

Darrin Peppard (: 44:54

that's cool.

Damon Lewis (: 45:03

because ⁓ it's not a position that I ever, ever thought that I'd be in, Darren. Quite honestly, I've said that a few times, but it's really the truth. Because I went into this work not trying to be the best, you know what I mean? But I did go into this work wanting to do the best job for my kids, my families, and my community. So this was never on a bucket list for me. I wanna be the best prince of that.

but I wanted to do the best job that I could do for the people that I served. The National Award, ⁓ I got an email from Ron Nozzi, from Ron, at ⁓ Nozoway, yes, Nozoway, I'm sorry, at NASSP. And it was right around Teacher Appreciation Week. And it was under the guise of, hey, we wanna get a couple comments about teachers and how you support them and how you're gonna celebrate them.

Darrin Peppard (: 45:42

Sorry.

Damon Lewis (: 45:58

So we're talking, he's talking about chronic abs and cheers. I'm telling him, yeah, we send out letters, we make home visits, we go to social worker, we drag kids out of bed, not literally. Get him to come to school. And ⁓ he said, by the way, ⁓ I'm really calling you to let you know that you are a national middle school of the year finalist. And Darren, I lost it, right? I lost it. I lost it. I probably lost it more than...

Darrin Peppard (: 46:22

Yeah.

Damon Lewis (: 46:27

when I was the state winner. Just to be a national finalist is humbling. You kind of feel like you've already made it. You're in the top three in the nation. ⁓ Again, I just love the work I do. And with this platform, I know a lot comes with it. let's say with a lot of freedom comes a lot of responsibility. And through my football years, I got pretty big shoulders so I can take that on. ⁓ I can take the load on.

Darrin Peppard (: 46:32

Yeah.

Yeah.

Damon Lewis (: 46:57

But I, as you know, the advocacy for public education is really deep in my heart. I believe public education is the best education. I'm a public education student. My entire family, ⁓ public education. My wife is a one-to-one paraeducator. Our oldest daughter just finished her first year teaching at a high school. ⁓ Our twins are just finished her freshman year in college. My daughter, Nya, is animal science major at University of Connecticut.

And my son Elijah is going into education as well, physical education and health. So we're a family of educators. My dad, before he passed on, was an educator as well. So it kind of runs in our blood. And my mom was a retired nurse. So there's this, there's through line to me for my core values are always been based in faith and service, strong faith and service and in everything that you do that's aligned with your core values, Darren, your core values.

are unwavering. You don't have a set of core values for home than a different set of core values for work than a different set of core values for the community. Your core values are your core values and you take them with you everywhere you go. So in this role ⁓ as a finalist, I'm going to continue to advocate for the power of public education. I'm going to continue to advocate for ⁓ students from marginalized communities, ⁓ regardless of race or ethnic background.

I'm going to continue to advocate for, um, and talk about the importance of students seeing more minority educators and more minority leaders. And I'm saying that not, and I may, have to make this point clear, Darren, not because I don't think non-minority teachers and leaders can help minority students. I do not think that I think as long as you are in it for kids, it doesn't matter what

color you are, what your ethnicity is. If kids are your number one agenda, that doesn't matter. But on the flip side, I do think it's really, really, really important for our kids to see people of color in positions of teaching and leadership so that's something that they can aspire to. I really feel deep about that. I'm really big on the recruitment and hiring and retention.

of teachers and leaders of color. That's one of the reasons why I started the black male administrators group in Norwalk to give us ⁓ a sense of a more of a sense of purpose so we can bond and collect and connect on some of the strategies and things that we're using our buildings to help our kids. ⁓ So our job is all about advocacy. ⁓ And that would be my platform because I really want to increase the

the knowledge in the bandwidth around disproportionately. Okay. And I don't know if a lot of enough people have looked at that data, developed that problem of practice and put in place that theory of action to help all kids, every kid, not just the top or the middle, every single kid. So again, we're accelerating where we have to.

and intervening where we have to for every single kid. Because I was one of those kids, Terry. ⁓

Darrin Peppard (: 50:29

very.

⁓

Sorry to interrupt you, man. Very, very powerful stuff right there. Love it so much. Let's get to that final question here on the show. This is the Leaning Into Leadership podcast. And honestly, Dr. Lewis, you have shared so many ways that you are leaning into leadership, but perhaps maybe you can share one more thing you're doing to lean into leadership right now.

Damon Lewis (: 50:41

Okay.

you know what? ⁓ I will consistently and constantly lean into leadership. In the arena of ⁓ the cycle of continuous improvement, I'm constantly trying to get better. I'm never satisfied, and I think that has a lot to do with ⁓ my athletic background. You always go into your coach for feedback, for feedback, for feedback. I talked to my supervisor two, three times a week. Feedback. I always want to.

I never want to leave this constant cycle of improvement. So I lean into that every single day, regardless if it's the first day of school or it's day 181, which we're coming up on. We're constantly looking to get better. So my lean into leadership is that constant cycle of improvement, but it's also based in my core values that I'm going to stay faithful to that constant cycle of improvement that I'm going to stay.

I'm going to stay faithful in providing service to the kids, families and communities that I serve via this constant cycle of improvement, right? We never get off of this. People say, you know, you've run out of treadmill all the time. I'm getting tired. I'm getting tired. See, I'm not getting tired. I want to stay on this treadmill of constant improvement. I don't want to get off because then once I get off, I feel satisfied. And in this job, you can never feel satisfied. You can never come to a time.

We can shut your door, put your hands behind your head and put your feet up on your desk. When that happens, you've got to retire. You've got to give it up. I don't want to get off that treadmill, Darren. I don't. And I'm going to stay on it for as long as I can. Because somebody did it for me. Because somebody did it for me, Darren. Somebody did it for me.

Darrin Peppard (: 52:40

Absolutely, and you absolutely should. Yeah.

Outstanding stuff, man. I cannot thank you enough for your time and for this conversation. I'm certain our listeners and our viewers are absolutely filled with this conversation and genuinely, you know, on behalf of administrators everywhere, those of us who've had those opportunities to be in the trenches, in the arena, on behalf of kids and on behalf of adults.

Damon Lewis (: 53:14

Hmm.

Darrin Peppard (: 53:18

⁓ Thank you for the work that you do. Congratulations on this recognition and whether you're the ultimate winner as National Middle School Principal of the Year or not, the work you are doing is absolutely fantastic. It's meaningful, it's powerful and I for one am grateful to have made this connection with you.

Damon Lewis (: 53:38

Thank you, Darren. I appreciate the opportunity. Again, I take nothing for granted, absolutely nothing. So everything that I'm doing now is something that I've been called to do, really. And I thank my mother for sending me those letters in college and those newspaper articles, because you know what? If she didn't do that, I may be in that corner office, you know? And thank God my mother did that.

Darrin Peppard (: 54:04

Yeah.

Damon Lewis (: 54:06

That was one of the largest pivots in my life, if not the largest.

Darrin Peppard (: 54:13

Well, we're grateful that she did that as well because certainly having you as a part of our profession certainly enriches our profession. So Dr. Damon Lewis, thank you so much for joining me here on the Leaning Into Leadership podcast.

Damon Lewis (: 54:15

Yes.

Thanks for having me, Darrin, and I appreciate your time. Thank you.

Darrin Peppard (: 00:01

Alright folks, there you have it. That is the first of six episodes in this special series. Again, sitting down with the NASSP finalists for National Middle School and National High School Principal of the Year. Big special thank you to Damon Lewis for sitting down with me and having this conversation. I hope you came away with some amazing stuff there. I hope you took a bunch of notes. Make sure you reach out, get connected with Damon, and stay tuned for more, folks.

In just two days, coming up in episode 216, the first of our high school finalists, Tony Katani, High School Principal at Lenape High School in Medford, New Jersey. In the meantime, get out there, folks. Have a road to awesome week.