January 2019 Employee Spotlight: Middle School Assistant Principal Ryan Beaumont
Middle School Assistant Principal Ryan Beaumont says that one of the life choices he’ll never regret was his decision to to move to Annapolis, Maryland after he graduated from Ohio University. Armed with only a B.S. in Adolescent Young Adult Integrated Science Education, the Twinsburg native knew he wanted to grow personally and professionally—and Mr. Beaumont thought the best way to do that was to step outside of his comfort zone. He was right. For ten years, Mr. Beaumont worked at Anne Arundel County Schools, where he earned his chops first as a teacher, then as an administrator. It was an experience he’ll never forget and one that he says helps him every day for his work at Shaker Heights Middle School. Read more about Mr. Beaumont.
The wall of your office has a sign that reads “#1 Dad.” So are you?
Beaumont (chuckling): I do love my kids. We’ve got twins—Ellison and Hudson—who will be four in February. They’re the perfect age now and so much fun.
Now that your children are in preschool, is it hard not to be critical of their school experience?
It’s really fun to see the twins hit their milestones and to understanding how they go from where they are now to this place where I work with teens. It’s really cool to see the leaps they make in development.
What made you choose to move to Maryland after college?
My uncle is an assistant principal in Anne Arundel County and invited me to a job fair. He asked me if I’d consider moving to Maryland and I went out there and was like, “Well, this is very different.” But my wife and I wanted to grow as people and know what it was like to be professionals and to be a married couple. So we did it. We were our own support system and we learned so much about ourselves and each other. We lived halfway between Baltimore and Washington, DC, so there was a lot of stuff to do. It was a very cool experience.
But it’s also expensive to live there.
It’s unreasonably expensive to live there, yes. And it became one of the deciding factors in our choice to move home. We wanted to be able to give the kids some grass to run around on and other things that we couldn’t afford there.
You were an assistant principal at Crofton Middle School before coming to Shaker. What was it like there?
Well, it was structured just like Shaker Heights Middle School. We had one principal and two assistant principals, but we also had twice the number of students and not as many resources. We didn’t have someone like a [RTI Coordinator] Rob McMahon or [ATS Supervisor] Dave Watson helping us with some of the behavioral issues that would eat up a lot of our day. We had more than 90 teachers, so I had to observe 40 of them and I was the testing coordinator, though we only had 200 computers in our building, so it was a very good learning experience. I had the chance to have a lot of good leadership opportunities there.
So with that experience, what do you appreciate about Shaker Heights Middle School?
I think it’s the approach to addressing the social emotional needs of our kids. In Anne Arundel County, we’d heard about Restorative Practices and there may have been one school in the entire district that was really implementing them—and that was one out of 186 schools. So, just the idea that kids get the opportunity to make mistakes, but we don’t try to find ways to get rid of them. Instead, we acknowledge that they’re human and we try to find a solution to the problem. Sure, sometimes that comes with a disciplinary consequence, but I think it’s nice to know that we don’t say we have our kids’ interest at heart. We really mean it.
And as someone who’s built a career on instructional leadership, is that the evaluation process here is terrific because it’s so conversational. We talk about growth opportunities and we share ideas. In two years, I’ve had some really cool conversations with our teachers. So yes, the evaluation happens, but it’s not just a checklist.
What drew you to Shaker?
I think it was the commitment to putting in the work. I’ll never forget how many interviews I sat through before I was hired. I drove back and forth between Maryland and Shaker three weekends in a row for interviews and it was a different group of people every time. First, there were parents, then teachers, then another group of teachers and administrators. I kept thinking that if this is a community that’s willing to go to these lengths about the people they hire, then this is a place that has attention to detail and really wants to put the best forward for all students.
What experiences are you excited about at the Middle School this year?
I had the opportunity to work on starting the Rising Stars program here at the Middle School. It started last year with us looking at Woodbury and seeing what they were doing that worked really well. We have about 20 African American male students who will be working as a cohort with two of our seventh grade math teachers. They’ll have opportunities to get some pre-teaching and to build review activities for the rest of their class. It’s really exciting and I work with three really great teachers.
What IB learner attribute do you best exemplify?
I’d say open minded. I’m always willing to hear from other people and other perspectives. It might not mean that anything is going to change, but I’m always open to the possibility.
What do you do in your spare time?
I’m a golf fanatic. It’s my favorite sport. If I could wave a magic wand, I’d be a PGA player. I’m teaching my kids to play. It’s a good stress reliever. It’s fun. I started a little later as a kid, but it’s something you can do for the rest of your life.
What has golf taught you?
The interactions on the golf course show you a lot about other people’s character. And the sport teaches you about integrity and decision-making. There are a lot of times where you have to weigh your options and you have to be willing to take a risk—maybe nine times out of ten, it doesn’t work out for you, but if you play it right, that one time, it’ll work out and it’ll turn into an amazing thing.
Posted: Sunday, December 30, 2018