Middletown Board of Ed sends Facendo back to principal's office

After a few days as interim principal of Thompson Middle School, Anne Facendo remembered how much she really liked being a principal. The Middletown Township Board of Education liked her as one, too — enough to let her leave a district-wide administrative post and heed the call to go back to the principal’s office.

No, she hadn’t done anything bad. She, in fact, welcomed the summoning to an office that bears the “you’re in trouble” stigma for students. Instead, for her “it really felt like coming home,” said Facendo, who had originally agreed to temporarily fill the vacant post at Thompson only until the district could find a permanent replacement for Patrick C. Houston, who retired after more than 36 years in the district in December.

Facendo knows Thompson well, having served two-and-a-half years as principal “across the street” at Nut Swamp Elementary School when she first arrived in the district five years ago.

“This has always been a wonderful school,” she said. “I’ve always enjoyed working with the staff here. I know the families very well — not only the kids from Nut Swamp, but the kids from all our sending schools because I’ve worked in their schools too,” during the past two years, as district director of Curriculum for the Humanities.

Superintendent Karen Bilbao, who recently retired, “called me over the New Year’s weekend, told me that things had not worked out with the candidate of choice for Thompson,” said Facendo, “and asked if I could be temporarily posted here (at Thompson). I was here only about two or three days when I called Karen up and said, ‘I hate to do this to you, but this is something I really want …’” What she wanted was to stay put as principal of Thompson. And she had her own fundamental reasons.

The title of principal has traditionally been defined as the primary teacher of a school, not a more inadvertently detached administrator, Facendo explained. She embraces that traditional dual role as leader-instructor. “I really believe in a professional learning community,” she said. “I still consider myself a teacher, too.”

Facendo draws upon 21 years of experience as a classroom teacher in Lakewood and Red Bank. She was serving as literacy coach at Red Bank Primary School when she was hired to lead Nut Swamp as its principal in 2006. She was there until 2009; and that is where she came to love the principal role for the first time.

In giving up her district curriculum director position to once again serve as another of the district’s principals — this time in the middle school across the street — Facendo welcomed the slight demotion implied by the move in the schools administrative hierarchy.

She shrugs it off with a warm smile, recalling the anecdotal story of a truck that was stuck in the entrance of the Holland Tunnel. A precocious girl in a passing car provided the solution: let just enough air out of each of its tires. The truck soon had clearance.

“Sometimes, you let a little air out, and you find you’re exactly where you want to be,” said Facendo. “I don’t regard this as a demotion; I see it as a great opportunity. It means a lot to be able to do what you love every day.”

Facendo’s base salary, as listed in the schools budget, is $120,950; and she said it would stay the same with the switch.

With that change, comes better opportunity for her to follow certain educational passions. Facendo’s academic passion is literacy. She said she has encountered many students who never learned to read effectively, and is troubled by the “devastating impact” on their lives. Currently enrolled in the doctoral program at Kean University, Facendo can see herself someday teaching at the college level.

Even now, she spends her summer vacations attending and addressing conferences on literacy. She has been working with a number of New Jersey school districts to help their teachers learn better techniques for teaching children to read.

“Our economy is driven by information,” Facendo said. “By senior year of high school, our students need to know (and be able to use) 80,000 words effectively. No matter what field you choose, you have to be a strong and sufficient reader.”

Not surprisingly, she sees middle school as “a pivotal age. If I can connect what they’ve learned in elementary, and gear them up for high school, we can help our kids for the very long run.”

Facendo has a superintendent’s certification, and has been approached to apply for more than one position in the area, but has declined to do so.

“This fits,” she explains, “this is where I really want to be.” In fact, she can hardly believe her good fortune: “The universe moved on my behalf on this. The beauty of being the principal is you still get to go into the classroom, and I have no problem rolling up my sleeves and teaching alongside our staff. I don’t just get the opportunity, I make the opportunity — on purpose — because it’s one of my favorite things to do. I will put my paperwork on hold, for Saturday, if it means I can get into classrooms during the week.”

Facendo sees herself in “almost a pastoral role sometimes. What I love about this office is that I get to work with my kids and my terrific staff every day, but I also get to help people in our community in a way that I couldn’t do as a classroom teacher.”

“My experiences of each day are very diverse,” she says. “It is never boring. I think my favorite part of this job is that I can go home every day and look myself in the mirror, and know that I’ve done something good for the community. It’s a great feeling.”