Following a temporary leave taken to recover from health-related issues, Principal Brian Condon returned to Townsend Harris High School this month. Upon returning, he took over as principal once again, taking over from Assistant Principal of Organization Ellen Fee, who served as Acting Principal at the end of last semester.
“It’s exciting to be back. I spoke to my doctors about returning. I love my job, and I love what I do here,” Mr. Condon shared with The Classic regarding his return. “[My job] is extensive and basically what it is is you get to help people. For the most part, it’s a service job. You serve people, [and] I like to do that. It makes me happy.”
Mr. Condon said that he was confident things could run smoothly in his absence because of his focus on “distributing leadership throughout the building,” since he became the principal of THHS in spring 2017. He praised both the assistant principals and teachers for their efforts during this transition, emphasizing the amount of teacher leadership put into place.
“This place used to be a very very top down place—the principal set the tone, then the APs, then the teachers, and then the kids. When I got here almost eight years ago now, I started to say people need to be part of this. Everyone needs to be. Kids need to own it, teachers need to own it, [and] APs need to own it, so if the principal is not here for an extended period of time for whatever reason, or the principal leaves and a new one comes in, the school will continue to run in an orderly way and will continue to fulfill our mission of giving you guys the best experience in New York City, and I think probably the country,” said Mr. Condon.
“I’m so glad that Mr. Condon is back, because it was really hard to hold the school together without his expertise and great experience,” said Ms. Fee.
Similarly, Assistant Principal Jessica Graf said that she is “very glad that [Mr. Condon] is well,” and wishes him “continued good health,” noting that she is “thankful for his leadership.”
The leadership changes proved to be a challenge for everyone involved. Senior Advisor and Social Studies teacher Blayne Gelbman said that despite the difficulty, “the transition went very well,” noting Ms. Fee’s effective leadership.
“Ms. Fee is a good acting principal,” he said. “She is smart, capable, she knows the school as well as anybody here, and she stepped into a very difficult position and pulled us to the finish line. It’s great having Mr. Condon back. Nobody wanted to see him sick or hurt so having him back is comforting to both the school and staff.”
“The transition was very smooth, Ms. Fee has been here for a long time and she knows how things work,” said United Federation of Teachers Representative and English teacher Kevin McDonaugh.
When discussing student union proceedings in light of Mr. Condon’s absence, SU President Alex Yauri said, “…Mr. Condon has taught us quite a few things, especially about how to manage ourselves, so luckily, he prepared us [for] when he left on a sudden notice.”
Mr. Condon also shared from experience what makes a “successful”principal. “ I don’t go anywhere without thinking about school,” he said. “I was on the train this morning coming to work from Long Island and there were three girls talking about AP Chem or AP Physics, and ‘what class should I take and what college am I going to go to and what about this and what about that.’ I was listening to the conversation and was thinking: ‘Hmm, what if my kids are thinking that?’”
