Principal Of The Year: Honeygo Elementary's Charlene Behnk

From Baltimore County Public Schools: At the end of Charlene Behnke’s acceptance speech for the 2019-2020 Elementary Principal of the Year award, she called out “Honeygo,” and her staff, family, and friends in the audience immediately responded, “On the Run.”

That moment encapsulates why Behnke was being honored. Although this is just the end of Honeygo Elementary’s first year, Behnke has succeeded in creating a positive and unified school community and that community is committed to making steady progress. Honeygo… on the run!

The Path To Honeygo

Behnke began her teaching career in Baltimore County Public Schools in 1991 – after student-teaching at Rodgers Forge Elementary and being named Towson University’s Most Promising Teacher of the Year. A Maryland native, Behnke was born and raised in Prince George’s County and graduated from Towson University with a Bachelor of Science degree in education. Later, in 1998, she obtained her Master of Arts degree in the supervision of elementary schools from Johns Hopkins University.

Behnke proudly shares that she has spent most of her career on the east side of Baltimore County having been a teacher, mentor teacher, assistant principal, and principal over the past 27 years. Behnke assumed her first principalship at Seneca Elementary School in 1996 and spent seven years there. She then spent four years as the principal at Vincent Farm Elementary School, Baltimore County’s largest elementary school with over 900 students.

“I arrived at Vincent Farm in year six for the school,” Behnke notes, “and I got to see how that principal had created that school. Not everyone gets to take over from a founding principal.”

She wrote of Vincent Farm: “The dedication and commitment of the staff and families was evident from the moment I stepped in the door. Everyone spoke of the energy, excitement, and passion that was generated during those first few years. It was also clear that the school principal played a critical role in shaping the mission, culture, and vision for a new school.”

Her experience at Vincent Farm inspired her to seek the challenge and opportunity of opening the new Honeygo Elementary School.

Creating A School From The Ground Up

“It has been the most amazing professional and personal opportunity that I could have been offered,” Behnke says. “I am so grateful to the school system to be able to create a school from the ground up, seeing the building rise from land that used to be a nursery. How often do you get to see a blank slate and to create something new?”

Behnke, who lives in the Honeygo community, says, “Creating Honeygo meant taking children from four wonderful elementary schools. Parents and community members made it clear that they expected this new school to be of the same caliber. It was a positive push. I was so fortunate to have the community embrace this school.”

Behnke spent a year preparing for the opening of Honeygo.

“All school leaders make multiple, critical decisions at the start of every school year,” Behnke wrote. "The months before the opening of a new school in an established and successful community requires significant planning for success. From interviewing and hiring administrative staff, secretaries, teachers, lunch room staff, and support staff, every selection became vital to the overall success of this school’s first year.”

Five information meetings for potential Honeygo staff were held throughout Baltimore County beginning in November 2018. According to Behnke, the meetings were designed so potential staff could understand the expectations, vision, and challenges for the new school. Following interviews with teachers, Behnke dropped in to visit those teachers she was considering.

“These drop-in visits,” Behnke wrote, “provided the necessary insights into how those teachers interact with students and how their classrooms ‘felt’ for children. Other factors that I considered critical to the success of the school included establishing a parent organization (PTO), planning for onsite childcare providers to be selected by a school committee, selecting the school colors, and collaborating with staff and students on the selection of a school mascot and slogan.”

Following the drop-in visits, Behnke stationed herself at the Dunkin Donuts in Perry Hall four nights each week, to continue meeting with teacher candidates. “At first,” she says, “I felt bad about taking up space for so long. I pretty much ate everything on the menu. I even worked my way to the ice cream section of the menu. Then, in conversations with the owner, I learned he welcomed the use of his store as a partner with our school, and I was able to enjoy just coffee with the teachers, saving many calories.”

Behnke praises the BCPS Division of Human Resources for letting her hire the teachers she wanted and is grateful to her principal colleagues who collaborated with her to arrange for teacher transfers. Because she knew the school would have a diverse student population, she was very intentional in selecting a diverse staff.

A New School For Her Own Community

Outreach to potential staff was mirrored by outreach to future students and their families. In addition to visiting students in their schools, four family nights were held in the neighborhood’s Angel Park, hosted by the school’s newly formed PTO organization. At these events, every student received a maroon Honeygo shirt.

“Having served as PTA President in the past, I thought my years of serving on the executive board were behind me,” says Nitsa Zdziera. “When I met Charlene, it was undeniable that her enthusiasm and energy were contagious. I immediately felt a need to be part of something so special. I signed on to be PTO president and committed to creating something new and amazing for students, staff, parents and our entire community.”

Behnke and her husband have raised three children in the Perry Hall area. (One is a graduate of the University of Delaware, one is a junior at the University of Maryland, College Park, and their youngest is a senior at Perry Hall High School. He will be studying music education at Towson University in the fall.)

Because she lives in the area, as the school got closer to opening, Behnke would see more and more people in grocery stores and throughout the community wearing their maroon Honeygo shirts.

The other three principals who have opened new BCPS schools in recent years were a tremendous resource for Behnke. “They helped me navigate through keeping the focus on teaching and learning.”

As Behnke puts it, “You know what a school values by what they do.”

Kindness And High Expectations

One of her priorities in creating a “school that is designed around kindness for students and high expectations for teaching and learning” was to start with the relationships that teachers form with students. “We as a staff identified how we would greet children in the morning,” she says.

“We committed to a climate framework. We agreed upfront to priorities and spent this year sticking to it. Walk throughout this building and you will hear adults asking students about their soccer games, their families. That is because the adults in this building know what is going on in our students’ lives. How we treat children transfers into how children treat adults and treat each other.”

Behnke says that one of the high points of the year for her was the ribbon cutting ceremony in which every student participated. “We have had so much fun this year,” she says, noting the pep rally and the election to choose the school mascot.
So much fun and so much learning.

In a letter of support for Behnke’s Principal of the Year nomination, a teacher wrote: “Principal Behnke has a commitment to learning; for both students and staff. She creates an environment where teachers are empowered to take risks, to learn and grow through conversation and dialogue, and to analyze data with a focus on equity to ensure that all students are receiving the intentional instruction that they deserve and that there are no unintended consequences… Mrs. Behnke’s vision was transforming a building into a schoolhouse, a ‘home,’ breathing life into what was once a drawing on paper.”

Anthony Williams, a Grade 4 student also endorsed Behnke’s nomination: “Through all of these things, she has not just opened a school, she has made a positive culture of kindness and a community where people want to go to school. If it weren’t for her leadership, this would [have] just been another school. She has transformed this school into a home where students, parents, and teachers want to go not just for the learning, but for the kindness.”