Trubute

 Just before we returned to school to start the New Year, we received a text from our principal saying that she would not be there on day one of 2024. It seems that she contracted a bit of the COVID while vacationing with her husband. On a cruise ship. 

For a moment or two, we briefly piled on. After years of masks and air filters and sanitizing hands at every entrance and exit how could this have happened? The answer was easy enough: Cruise Ship. 

So we did what we always do when someone is absent: We closed ranks and filled in as best we could until our principal could return. Which she did on Friday. After she had tested negative and put all her symptoms away. All of us breathed a sigh of relief when she came back. The principal of a school is a community leader, and aside from all the things that she does over the course of a day, a week, a year is only part of what makes her so vital. Having a leader is important when you're taking on an endeavor as huge as the shaping of young minds. 

Which is why I felt the passing of Dan Marburger, principal of Iowa's Perry High School. Mister Marburger died from the wounds he suffered when a seventeen year old student at his school opened fire on January 4, killing a sixth grader and wounding six other kids. Eyewitnesses have reported that it was the principal who distracted the shooter while other students fled the crowded cafeteria to safety. 

Ten days later, Dan Marburger became the third victim to die including the shooter from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. 

I know how difficult it was for the kids at my school to wrap their heads around the idea that their principal was sick. For three days. The idea that your principal wouldn't be coming back. Ever. That packs a punch. Forever. For always. 

Over the course of my career, I have worked with a number of principals. Some of them came and left. Others stuck around and made their mark. There is a mural outside our kindergarten room commemorating Nancy Morganti, who passed away suddenly from cancer, leaving us all to ponder our relative permanence in this business. 

I hope there will be a mural. A statue. A tribute somewhere on the Perry High School campus for Dan Marburger. And in the hearts of those he helped learn and grow.