Education Week - February 21, 2018 - 30

LESSONS
FROM
A LEADER
Listen, Then Act
Ask students what is
going well, what needs
to be improved, and
what they need to be
successful. Then, act on
what they tell you.

Words Matter
Use your words to build,
to create, to empower,
to guide, and children
will follow suit.

Build
Relationships
Meet families in
their homes, attend
community events, and
cultivate relationships
with alumni.

"From the student town hall meetings came a review of the curriculum back at the district level and
with the high schools and actual changes as to how
[biology] is being implemented," said Meloche, who
noted that he may not have been able to understand
the problem as well without talking to students. "All
of the children are incredibly insightful."
Students were even brought to the table to upgrade lackluster lunches. Meloche's team set up a
focus group with the district's food-service providers and allowed children to taste test potential new
menu items and weigh in on what they liked and
didn't.
That's not to say that the district acts on every
concern that students bring to the forefront. Some,
like the schools' early start time, require state action. And others-like allowing high school students
to leave the school grounds at lunch time-just
aren't logistically feasible.
But even when the district can't fix something or
adopt a policy or approach suggested by students,
Meloche believes it's important for them to feel
heard. And he thinks they can inadvertently reveal
some insights about how they perceive their education. For instance, during the Beck town hall, one
student prefaced a comment about her language arts
class by telling Meloche she isn't very good at math
or science.
That got the superintendent's attention.
"Why are kids not good at it yet? You're not good
at it because you haven't had the connection of
how do you engage," he said in an interview later.
He expects other students might feel similarly. "I
guarantee she's not the anomaly."
The student's remark, Meloche said, would
prompt a follow-up request with the school's new
acting principal, Bernie O'Connor, who he once
mentored, to take a deeper look at Beck's math and
science instruction at the student's grade level.
"It's not a punitive," he said. "It's not a negative.
We have to always get better. Teaching is a lot of
work. Educating kids is hard."
Meloche spent time as a school leader himself
before becoming superintendent. Meloche, 46,
grew up in Cherry Hill. He came back in 2003 to
be the principal of Kingston Elementary on Cherry
Hill's west side, where he'd once been a student
and where his mother still taught kindergarten. He
then became principal of his own former middle and
high schools, following some of the same children
throughout their K-12 careers.
Meloche also consults with the district's alumni.
He checks in regularly with a group of recent Cherry
Hill graduates to find out how well their experiences
in the district prepared them for life beyond high
school.
Sean Bivins, a 2013 Cherry Hill alum who recently
graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, said
the district was strong academically. But Cherry
Hill could have done a better job exposing him to
skills he uses daily as an employee at the financial-

Education Week Leaders To Learn From 2018

services company Wells Fargo, such as collaborating
with colleagues or using Microsoft Office. He thinks
students could benefit from instruction on financial literacy, a skill he saw friends struggle with in
college.
Bivins and other alumni have helped district leaders revise the school system's mission statement,
putting a greater focus on getting students ready for
the world of work and life after high school.
School leaders in Cherry Hill have been following
Meloche's lead and make seeking student input a
regular part of their practice. One high school
principal has set up his own student "executive
committee." And Meloche has encouraged principals
to shadow their students from time to time to get
a fuller picture of what their experience is like on a
typical school day. Their enthusiasm is a sign that
the initiatives will endure even if Meloche were to
leave.
"He does things through modeling," said John
J. Cafagna, the principal of John A. Carusi Middle
School. He's found that getting student input on
changes "squelches issues in the classroom because
now it's their school." If students have a role in
shaping rules, procedures, and programs, they
are more likely to buy in to them, he explained.

Alumni Insights
Chelsea Monahan, a former Cherry Hill student
who now teaches 4th grade in the district, said
Meloche's direct connections to students and
understanding of their needs isn't new. It was
a trait he cultivated when he was her principal
at Cherry Hill West High School. When Monahan left Cherry Hill to play ice hockey at a
high school in Canada, Meloche helped ensure that
her credits transferred. Even more importantly,
he called once a semester to get an update on her
academically, and athletically. And he was in regular
touch with her Canadian guidance counselor.
Now, as an educator herself, Monahan has learned
from Meloche. She surveys her students once a
month to see what they think is working well in her
classroom and what could be going better.
"I think he definitely cares what the students
think," she said. "They know who he is, which is
huge. They all know when Dr. Meloche is in the
building."
Meloche's move to make student voice a central
part of his school improvement strategy isn't typical, said Gretchen Brion-Meisels, a lecturer at the
Harvard Graduate School of Education.
"I think it's unusual for superintendents to meet
regularly with students in a way that's structured
and systemic and systematically incorporates their
feedback into district policy," said Brion-Meisels,
who has studied the impact of elevating student
voice but has not specifically examined the work in
Cherry Hill. She said it's more common on a classroom or school level, but rarely, if ever, has she seen

Education Week - February 21, 2018

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