Eighth-grade students traveled to different schools in the district and held meetings with various administrative officials.
Four students got a behind-the-scenes look at the inner workings of the Evesham Township School District this week during the district’s annual “Superintendent for a Day” event.
Eighth-grade house presidents at DeMasi and Marlton middle schools spent a half-day shadowing Superintendent John Scavelli Jr. as he traveled to schools in the district and held meetings with administrative officials.
Whether it was attending a morning meeting in a kindergarten class at Jaggard Elementary School, visiting a first-grade class at Beeler Elementary School, or checking in with officials from the district’s business office and curriculum department, the students got a firsthand look at the district outside of their normal classrooms.
Scavelli said he hopes the annual event gives kids an idea of just some of the work required to keep a school district operational.
“It’s just giving them insight to all the different aspects of the school district itself, as well as the business side of it, and the development side of it, and the constant staff development and hiring and all those aspects,” Scavelli said.
For their part, students at the event came away from the day saying they had learned more about the district than they knew before.
Sean Daly, president of Blue Hall at Marlton Middle, said he didn’t realize there were so many members of the district’s administrative staff.
“There were a lot more positions here than I thought there would originally be,” Sean said. “There’s a director for a lot of different things…I didn’t expect there would be so many.”
Lauren Hartpence, president of Green Hall at DeMasi, agreed.
“I learned there were a lot more people who work for the school district than I thought before,” Lauren said.
Brandon Bayzath, president of Red Hall at DeMasi, recalled playing baseball near the district’s administrative building in the past and wrongly assuming there might just be a handful of people inside.
“It takes many people to run a well-working machine,” Brandon said.
As the presidents of the respective halls at their schools, and after following Scavelli for the day, the students also offered their perspective on what makes a good leader.
Anthony Foster, president of Yellow Hall at Marlton Middle, said he believed a good leader is someone who is honest and can state a position that people can get behind.
“It’s someone who you can look up to and someone who you can believe in — it’s someone who is honest,” Anthony said.
Lauren said cooperation skills were one of the most important qualities needed for a good leader.
“You have to be able to understand what the people you’re representing need and what they want, and you have to be able to turn that into something to make things better,” Lauren said.
Having now viewed the Evesham Township School District from the perspective of a student and as a “superintendent,” students also commented on what they believe makes the district unique.
“I think there’s a lot of dedicated people here working to keep the schools open so kids can learn,” Sean said. “There’s a lot of places where kids can’t, so we’re very fortunate here to have a great school system.”
Students will also have yet another chance to learn about their school system at the next meeting of the Board of Education, where the four would-be superintendents will have a chance to sit with the board during the meeting just as Scavelli does each month to take in yet another aspect of the district’s operations.
