Rachael Scorca is bullish on hearing what Kingston High School (KHS) students and the school community at large have to say. She said as much in a Kingston City School District (KCSD) press release announcing her move from KHS assistant principal to principal, effective Saturday, July 1.
“My aim will be around amplifying the student voice, enhancing communication among staff, students, parents and the community, and cultivating a strong sense of belonging and school pride,” said Scorca.
One week earlier, Scorca offered similar thoughts during a presentation before the Board of Education on BLTs.
The Kingston High School Building Leadership Team (BLT) is more than just an acronym for a classic sandwich, though it’s an appropriate place to start: Like the bacon-lettuce-tomato BLT, the Building Leadership Team is best when it has all the right ingredients. But until now, one very important ingredient was missing from the KHS BLT: Students.
“Our first commitment really concentrated on the idea of having students join so many of the committees that we have here at Kingston High School, because it really doesn’t make sense for only adults to be having conversations for policies and systems that govern the school,” Scorca said. “Having students as part of those conversations are incredibly helpful because then we can get immediate feedback on what students think and whether or not that would work, or if they have better ideas, or things that are more in touch with students.”
During the June 21 School Board meeting, Scorca said that with months of distance learning during the Covid-19 pandemic, many students felt disconnected and were “lacking ownership” of KHS. Including student voices on various committees and the BLT may help foster that sense of ownership again.
“Students will be provided with forums to voice their ideas, opinions, questions and viewpoints to elicit productive discussions, increase support from school personnel and help to guide changes made to the school to improve the experience for all members of the KHS community,” read one of the BLT commitments in the presentation. And that goes beyond the BLT as well.
“What we’re really looking to do is continue membership on the BLT, our attendance committee the Jefferson Committee and our Safety Committee,” Scorca said. “We’re working on having some more positive signage and ways for students to get involved in things, including adding comment boxes for school improvement in our cohort suites.”
Scorca said the BLT will also cast a wider net into families and the community at large, opening lines of communication and streamlining the process too.
“We’re trying to figure out ways for some of our documents and letters home to be more interactive so that people can ask questions immediately,” Scorca said. “We are going to hopefully be doing a lot of community meetings, parent meetings, inviting parents into the school, maybe looking for some off-site community meeting spaces so that we have very open lines of communication and get ahead of situations and people’s concerns and worries…Yes, there are walls of the school, but we want to have flexible, open, honest, transparentcommunication.”
Communication is also being enhanced on campus and online as well.
“We do have a BLT section now on our KHS website that has a form and an email address so that people can put in comments and we can get back to them,” Scorca said. There’s also an invitation for them to perhaps join BLT.”
Scorca has been with the KCSD for nearly 15 years, serving as an English teacher at KHS before becoming an assistant principal in August 2018. As principal, she replaces Kirk Reinhardt, who served in the role on an interim basis and is now the district’s deputy superintendent for teaching and learning.
“We are thrilled to have been able to promote Dr. Scorca to the position of principal,” said Superintendent Paul Padalino in the district’s press release. “She knows our students, faculty and staff very well. We have no doubt she will enjoy much success in this position.”
Scorca is a graduate of Rhinebeck High School and received a bachelor’s degree in Broadcast Journalism and Spanish from American University. She earned a master’s degree in Teaching from Bard College, a master’s degree in Educational Leadership and Administration from SUNY New Paltz and a Doctor of Education degree from Vanderbilt University.
“I believe leadership is not a title but constant action,” said Scorca in the district press release. “Serving our students and their families in this community is an important responsibility and I believe that we are creating caring global citizens and life-long learners. My students have always been my priority, and this will never waver.”
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