Principal for a Day event

BY MELISSA ALEXANDER

Thursday, October 22, 2009 2:37 PM EDT

Business leaders throughout the city traded in their boardrooms for classrooms, for PENCIL’s 15th Annual Principal for a Day Event – kicking off the 2009-2010 Pencil Partnership Program.

PENCIL works to improve New York City's public school education system through long-standing partnerships between the principals of schools and their community's private sector.

“We believe that in today’s day and age, many solutions don’t lie within the four walls of a school,” said Michael Haberman, President of PENCIL. “We have found that there are many private sector skills that transfer well to public high schools.”

This year, Lloyd Robinson, President of AWISCO, an industrial distributor in Maspeth, participated in the Principal for a Day program at Voyages Preparatory High School in Elmhurst.

“The event spoke mainly about my plans for the rest of the year,” said Robinson, who will continue volunteering at the school throughout the year – focusing on various skills that business owners throughout Queens seek in high school graduates.

“Tailoring the lesson plan specifically for that is something that the principal and I think might be worthwhile to pursue,” he said.

PENCIL tries to match up business leaders with principals at public schools throughout the city, so the business leader can act as a mentor to students, while also teaching them specific skills.

Haberman stated, “leadership development skills, financial literacy, creating student government at schools, teaching students how to better use technology, and forming a school identity" were among the many issues where private sectors offer valuable guidance.

Rather than PENCIL simply being a distraction or an add-on, Haberman wants it to “focus on what the principal wants to achieve."”

PENCIL'S 2009 Principal for a Day Event was sponsored by Bank of America Merrill Lynch, CA, Scholastic and UPS. With approximately 100 New York City schools on a waiting list for a PENCIL Partner, the organization continues to seek business leaders to get involved.

For more information on PENCIL's Partnership Program or to partner with a school, visit www.pencil.org or call 646-638-0565.

Photos Courtesy of Jeffrey Holmes Photography

Thomas Petrosino, President of ACME Metal CAP Co., visited long-time PENCIL Partner Principal Anthony Lombardi of P.S. 49 in Middle Village on Principal for a Day. Since 1999, Petrosino has worked with Lombardi to help him strategize ways of improving the school's operations, organize capital projects, and enhance school technology.