New Principal & Assistant Principal: First Impressions
Mr. Belk (left) and Mr. Wion (right) standing in front of the school office.
Mr. Belk's Interview
The Word: How have you liked your first 4 weeks of working here?
Mr. Belk: Yeah, I've absolutely loved it so far. The rate at which I'm able to get to know staff and students is unbelievable, just being in a smaller setting so it's been great.
The Word: How do you like the new school building?
Mr. Belk: I love it, I love - well first of all I like the place we’re operating right now, but I go over to the new space probably twice a week just to check on some things to make sure rooms are like in the right location, like for teachers and certain apartments is absolutely amazing, like the learning spaces that are going to be available for students and just the open spaces, it’s awesome.
The Word: Do you plan on making any big changes to the school?
Mr.Belk: No. I’ll just be flat out and say, like honestly big changes in regards to structural changes or processes?
The Word: Like, how things flow here.
Mr. Belk:So like I told you when I met the student groups and I met with staff actually the first time I talked to the staff I said I have like three major goals and they’re going to sound simple. The first one is to dive into the culture. The second one is to listen and the third one is to enhance when possible so Grandview’s got a lot of good things going on. There’s no reason to come in and shake things that don’t need to be shaken up. I’m also not gonna sit back and like let things happen if they’re not working but like when I say my first thing is to listen to dive into the culture is kind of figure out how everything got to the point where it’s at. Meet people and get to know them but no not come in and just say, “Yeah we’re changing this to that” for no reason would make no sense.
The Word:What was your old job and what was it like?Mr. Belk: So I was still in education. I was - past three years - I was at Upper Arlington Highschool. I was an assistant principal and 13 years prior to that I was with South Western schools. I was at Westland High School the majority of the time as a math teacher. High school math teacher. And then also assistant principal there too.
The Word: Which job did you like the most?
Mr.Belk: I mean, you talk about polar opposites as far as the size is the same but as far as community demographics. For the most part there isn’t really one or the other. I would say I spent a lot of time at Westland for a reason, I really really liked it there. I really like working with the people there and the kids. So I can definitely say this though, I’m not just saying this because I’m sitting in this chair right now, I definitely think I found my home. And I mean that.
The Word: How long have you been teaching in general?
Mr. Belk: So in education, for 16 years.
The Word: What was your dream job when you were a kid?
Mr. Belk: I didn’t go to college to be in education. I don’t know if I necessarily had a dream job. I will tell you this, when I got into education and told them (his past teachers) that I was going into education their jaws dropped. They were like, “Are you kidding me?” So I want to get that out of the way. So I didn’t necessarily have a dream job. Of course I had the thought to be a professional athlete. But when I went into college I knew I wanted to be in business. So that’s what I originally went to college for, was finance. So I was in finance for a couple of years. I hated my life. But I knew I always really wanted to be a teacher.
Mr. Wion's Interview
The Word: How have you liked your first four weeks of being principal here?
Mr. Wion: It’s been pretty wonderful, enjoying it. Staff, students have been great. It’s been a wild ride being with grades 4 through 12. So hanging out with fourth and fifth graders and then coming over and hanging out with upperclassmen here is quite wild but it’s been so much fun.
The Word: How do you like the new school building?
Mr. Wion: I love it and I can’t wait till we’re next door in the very new high school. I get to see it all the time and it looks so good.
The Word: Do you plan on making any big changes to the school?
Mr. Wion: No, I don’t think so.
The Word: What was your old job and what was it like?
Mr. Wion: I was a government teacher for juniors and seniors and it was wonderful. I love being a teacher.
The Word: How long do you plan on working here at Grandview?
Mr. Wion: I’ve only been in education for 14 years so I have a long way to go so I hope for the remainder of my career.
The Word: What do you like most about Grandview?
Mr Wion: The size. The size of this town, community, the size of the school. The size of our student population per grade level is all absolutely incredible. It is so much easier to get to know people, connect with people at a much faster pace and it has been wonderful. I love that. Size is definitely the number one thing.
The Word: What was your dream job when you were a kid?
Mr. Wion: Good question. I thought I’d be like a pediatrician or something because I like helping people and helping kids and here I am doing cooler sampling because being a doctor is miserable.