News of the social media series, ‘180 Days of Joy’ created by the new principal, Anthony Clark-Kaczmarek, is spreading across the school. A sizable portion of Bryan has either heard of or been a part of this project, as it has been posted on many outlets, such as Instagram, Facebook and X.
“I could easily sit in my office all day, but that’s not what I’m about,” CK said. “I want to be all about the students and what they are doing and support their work because there’s awesome stuff happening all over the building, and I want people to see it.”
CK has gone from attending after school clubs, to giving out snacks to sports teams, to dancing in the middle of the hype circle at Homecoming. It’s difficult to not see him.
“It really feels like coming home after having been an administrator for 15 years,” CK said. “To be able to come back to the place where I taught feels very familiar to me. Is it almost nostalgic because there are a lot of people here who I worked with back when I was a teacher.”
Besides ‘180 Days of Joy,’ CK has stated that he has big ideas for Bryan in the near future and might even consider doing something similar to what former principal Dr. Rony Ortega did with giving out teddy bears to students.
“I certainly want to continue to celebrate the students and to make them the top priority,” CK said. “I think what’s great about Bryan is just the students and what they’re doing, so I’m hopeful that I can find more and more ways that are clever and unique to celebrate the students.”
Some faculty and staff pride themselves on being a family, so it only makes sense that the new principal, as former Drama teacher, would be focused on the same thing.
“People like to come back here,” said English Teacher, Christine Thye. “Really, everybody who comes back here is always happy about it, and I like that. As a Bryan Bear, I want people to feel good about their experience here.”
CK is very focused on making lasting connections with whoever he meets. His past colleagues have nothing but positive things to say. Now, as a principal, CK is turning the focus from the students to the school as a whole.
“There’s something about Bryan that is so very community based and set in the values of being hardworking and being a group of people that are inclusive. It’s always been that way.” CK said. “I feel very proud that you can be whoever you are and still feel like you belong here. You can expect to work hard here, you can know that you’re a member of the family here, and that’s something that’s always stayed the same.”
As ‘180 Days of Joy’ continues, where it started, its inspiration, and impact on Bryan comes into question.
“I was at a national conference in Denver, and I listened to this guy talk about how he posted every day all the things that were great in his school. There is this movement: #180DaysOfJoy that he talked about. So, I ran with it and made it my own.”
Concluding the ‘180 Days of Joy’ series, CK will continue to work towards his goal of creating a strong connection with the student body as well as staff and faculty. Whether it may be through standing in the halls just to wish students a good day or sending ‘Thank You’ notes with personalized stickers to production participants. CK pushes to make sure every student feels welcome in Bear Country.
