Mary Mangione

I think I would have to attribute it to my parents more than anything, because it wasn't until later in life that I noticed that in their own way, they were also leading a life of service, like helping out a friend or helping out a neighbor. I do recall my dad always inviting his friends over, and they would confide in him, and he would feed them, and help them in whatever way he can. So I think the service part, I think that just came naturally as I got older, just watching them help out in their community and their church. In addition to that, my work ethics, I think, really came from my parents and my understanding of helping others. But in terms of being a principal, I really do think that the teachers that I work with allowed me to figure out how to be a principal. And being a leader and being a principal, I think those are two totally different things. So I think a lot of it has to do with the people that I work with who supported me and believed in me and allowed me to make certain decisions within an organization to set up structure and systems that really work for kids.

I think it's that there's no such thing as a bad decision. I think whatever decision you make, or whatever steps you decide to take, that just leads you to more decisions. So when it comes to choosing the right job or choosing the correct field in education, I really do think that just opens doors for more opportunities or different opportunities. I'm actually leaving the public school this year and I am opening up my new school in August. I'm essentially leaving the public school system as a principal, and then I am going back to private, but opening up a business, but I'm also going to be a principal at the new private therapeutic day school. So that's a big leap. It was really hard to decide whether or not I was going to leave public school, but what someone said to me really was this is just one decision, it doesn't mean that I can't come back. One decision leads to another, and there's no right or wrong decision when it comes to career.

I would say to build a supportive village around you. I think being a principal is a scary job nowadays because of all the legal ramifications. Depending on the district you work in, you may get a lot of support from central office, and you may not. And there's a lot of moments as a leader where you really have to be vulnerable about the growth that you're making and the impact that you're making. But having those people who will give you the honest truth about your work and your leadership and give you that feedback about how you're impacting the school community, that you could continue to do the work and not be burnt out. So building a strong, supportive system around you, I think, is really important in terms of staying in this field.

There's a national shortage of teachers right now. After COVID, teachers have been leaving the field in herds. And that's been a big issue because we really need to put qualified educators in front of students, and if we don't do that, then we're really left with needing to retrain and train teachers repeatedly without having the experienced educators in front of our students. So retention and also recruitment, that's a big concern. But I guess we're kind of lucky because Illinois is one of the higher-paying states when it comes to educators. And when it comes to funding sources, Illinois is pretty good at making sure that it's equitable across all educational agencies, not just general education, but special education and also alternative education. So a lot of the lobbying for different policies and funding that directly impacts our schools, I think that's one of the things that's working. But nationally, the teaching profession is something that is a concern as to how many new graduates are actually going into education.

I would say integrity. I think that education is a field where there are certain things that you can cut corners on. Or, especially in my current job, because the students are coming from 5 different large high schools, and we have an intake process. And oftentimes, it's really easy to say that we could take any students and that we could take any student who might be behind in credits, for example, but in order for our school to be efficient and to service those who are really in need, we really had to, as a team, think about our core values and how we show up for our students. Because the job is so demanding, and it can be exhausting, because you're constantly working with families and students with trauma background, and you're constantly hearing these stories. And if you don't have a strong core value system as to how you show up in that space, I think that you'll easily burn out and you won't be able to fulfill the role, which is really to support families and students.