Page 12 - DIPAULA

He confidently stepped to the podium excited to address the Graduating Class of 2018. When he scanned the auditorium, he was greeted with mixed emotions ranging from shocked, saddened, intrigued, angry, nonplussed, to indifferent. The students before him were excited to start their Senior year, but expected their beloved Principal Marcy Leonard would be the one handing them their diploma, not Dr. John DiPaula. But if there was anyone able to match that energy and level of support and make a successful run at managing, leading, and elevating Hammond High, Dr. John DiPaula was the perfect fit!
His background as a guidance counselor served him well as he made himself available to the students in leadership roles to immediately address their concerns. They were certain he was going to change the things they most looked forward to, but Dr. DiPaula allayed their fears.
After three short years as Principal of Hammond High School, Dr. DiPaula has revitalized, revamped, and introduced new initiatives enabling the staff and student body to achieve success in academics, athletics, and school spirit. His style of leadership empowers both student body and staff in ways that allow them to take ownership in the process of decision making for the purposes of improvement and achievement. Staff members are impressed with Dr. DiPaula’s listening skills and ability to enable solutions to be accomplished through simple conversation. He communicates clearly and is articulate, diplomatic, and endearing to everyone he meets. His door is always open, but good luck finding him there, as Dr. DiPaula’s daily presence is mainly relegated to the hallways, duty stations and mostly in classrooms.
He publishes a monthly newsletter for staff with community building information, pictures, professional learning articles, reminders, important dates and an anonymous feedback form.
In his first year, he provided the students a leadership/student voice conference where they discuss what is great at Hammond and want to make changes. He also identified several specific projects and work groups This has grown over the last couple of years and is totally run by our SGA and Student Leadership Cadre. Hammond runs our own cultural proficiency cohorts that are 3-days,