A Happy Principal at Flower Hill School
Marlon Small goes to work happy every morning with a very definite purpose in mind. He wants every student at Flower Hill School to have an exceptional educational experience and he wants it to be fun for them, too.
Mr. Small is Flower Hill’s principal and he’s all about learning and establishing a rock solid foundation of essential skills in the more than 350 students in his building. His sense of humor is also well-known and that shines through in most of his encounters with teachers, support staff, parents and the school’s youngsters.
“It has been my great pleasure serving as principal of Flower Hill School,” Mr. Small said. “Flower Hill is special to me because I started my teaching career here as a student teacher.”
After being appointed by district trustees, Mr. Small formally kicked off his professional career in September 1999 as a fourth grade teacher at Huntington Intermediate School. Three years later he was named dean of students at the school, a position he held for a year before moving with his family to Georgia. He then worked as a sixth grade social studies teacher in DeKalb County and the following year was named assistant principal at Margaret Winn Holt Elementary School in the Gwinnett County Public Schools.
Mr. Small returned to Long Island in July 2005 and was hired as assistant principal of Birchwood Intermediate School in the South Huntington school district. He was named Flower Hill principal in July 2006.
“The Flower Hill School community is made up of so many dedicated faculty, staff and parents who are committed to the success of our students,” Mr. Small said. “Their commitment is evident as you enter the building. All of us believe that it is our main responsibility to create a safe, respectful and nurturing school where all our students will be able to learn and achieve at their full potential.”
Prior to coming to the district in 1999, Mr. Small was a case worker at Berkshire Farm Center and Services for Youth in Melville, where he assessed and matched foster children with appropriate homes, completed assessments of youth and family and developed goals and objectives for treatment and provided group, family and individual support to foster children and families.
Flower Hill faculty members, like their counterparts across the Huntington School District, are working hard to drive student achievement levels higher. “Our teachers are constantly engaged in the process of looking at how our students are learning and achieving,” Mr. Small said.
The Flower Hill team has been tireless in its efforts. “We believe that reviewing student achievement data to identify struggling students and using that data to guide classroom instruction is not only important because of state testing, it’s important because it’s an effective way to meet the needs of all our students,” Mr. Small said. “The RTI initiative that the district is now undertaking has been an important step in this effort. We are now engaged in the process of making that important connection between behavior and student achievement. The belief is simple: behavioral expectations, like academics, should be taught and monitored. We have a RTI team of professionals in our building that is playing a critical role in providing support to their colleagues and our students. We are identifying students who are at risk, providing support, and collecting data to see if we are being effective. While these initiatives are in their infant stages, we are beginning to see great results from our students and tremendous support from our staff.”
A 1992 graduate of SUNY College at Old Westbury with a bachelor’s degree in American studies, Mr. Small earned a master’s degree in elementary and special education at Adelphi University in 1999. He later obtained a Professional Diploma and state administrative certification at Dowling College in 2002. He is currently in the final stages of study at Dowling for a doctorate in education.
“There is a saying that there are only two types of people who work in schools —those who teach and those who support teachers,” Mr. Small said. “As principal, I fall in the group that supports teachers. I hope to be able to provide the support our teachers require to effectively meet the needs of our students each day.”
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