Smart’s Mill Principal Wins Award At a Time of Loss

By Michael Alison Chandler (Contact)

Thursday, November 29, 2007

The hallways at Smart’s Mill Middle School in Leesburg are decorated like a family living room, crowded with artwork and photographs. On a recent tour, Principal Eric L. Stewart stopped often to point out pictures of the faculty cookout or a student canoe trip or a flag football game.

His leadership approach, characterized by the scrap-booking enthusiasm of a proud parent, has earned him this year’s Washington Post Distinguished Educational Leadership Award for Loudoun County, an honor that is paired with the school system’s Principal of the Year award.

The good news comes at a difficult time in Stewart’s life. Two months ago, his teenage daughter died from an illness related to cystic fibrosis. She had been a student at Loudoun County High School, interested in geometry and addicted to shopping, when she took ill in August.

Through his struggles, he has drawn on support from his friends and students at Smart’s Mill. They kept the school running smoothly when he could not be there full time early in the academic year, and they gave him a standing ovation when he returned. When his daughter died, teachers and students wore pink to support him and his son, a seventh-grader at the school. Some donated funds to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation in his daughter’s name.

“Everybody rallied around my family,” Stewart said. “Going through this has made the school more of a community.”

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Smart's Mill Middle School Principal Eric Stewart visits a sixth-grade art class at his school. Next to him is Keni-Lyn Nodland, 12 (in pink) and Jada Iraia, 11 (in green). (Tracy A. Woodward)

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Smart's Mill Middle School Principal Eric Stewart visits the sixth-grade art class of teacher Lesley McWilliams. (Tracy A. Woodward)

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Smart's Mill Middle School Principal Eric Stewart. (Tracy A. Woodward)

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Smart’s Mill is a close-knit place and Stewart, by many accounts, has worked hard to cultivate that atmosphere. Students, parents and teachers who contributed comments supporting his nomination for The Post’s award described him as welcoming and adept at making people feel at home in a school that opened three years ago.

He looks for ways to recognize every student’s achievements, whether good grades or good behavior. The walls are lined with certificates and student work. He tries to get each student involved in at least one extracurricular club or activity, and he strives to remember the names of all 900 students.

Stewart approaches the latter with particular zeal. He devised a challenge in which administrators must learn the names of every student in a given grade. If they miss four, the students in that grade get pizza or a school privilege.

Stewart has focused on creating an inclusive school. When he was principal at Sully Elementary from 1999 to 2004, the minority population became the majority, growing from about 30 percent to about 70 percent of the enrollment, he said. He tried to get to know minority parents and invited them to the school through a special parents group.

One student in the Smart’s Mill English as a Second Language program contributed a letter in support of the award. “Thanks for always treating us like we were an adult even when we are not acting like one,” she wrote. “You made me feel like I was one of your normal students, the ones that can speak English.”

Stewart finds various ways to spend time and connect with students. A few years ago, a group of students arrived at school about 30 minutes early each morning, throwing Frisbees in the parking lot or tossing tennis balls against the wall.

“I could have yelled at them and told them to stop,” he said. “But I knew they were there because they liked school and they liked each other.” So he decided to supervise their morning play session so they would be safe. By the end of the year, he became friends with them, and the students gave him a signed tennis ball that he keeps in his office.

“Just give them structure, and they will use their energy well,” he said of his approach to working with students.

The winners of the annual Post awards, which also are given to principals in other Washington area jurisdictions, are chosen by school officials in each district.

The Loudoun School Board honored Stewart at a meeting this month. “We are lucky to have you as a principal,” said board Vice Chairman Tom Reed (At-Large). “You are a special man with many gifts.”

Stewart’s response to the award was emotional.

“Ten years ago, I would have thought this award was about Eric Stewart,” he said. “But I was just average, and I had a lot to learn. This award is really an award about the school and communities and kids and teachers.”

He added that his father called him to say that he was proud and “that he knows his granddaughter would have been proud of me, too.”

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