Meet Adamsville Primary's New School Principal

In July of 2015, Adamsville Primary School of the Bridgewater-Raritan Regional School District welcomed their new principal, Dr. James Singagliese. Dr. Singagliese, who is a New Jersey native, joined the school with great enthusiasm for an exceptional school year. After the start of the 2015-2016 school year, we were happy to sit down with Dr. Singagliese and learn more about him and the extraordinary vision and goals that he has for Adamsville Primary.

Dr. Singagliese eagerly shared the journey of his career with us. He possesses a degree in Psychology along with a Master’s Degree in Education. After spending 5 years teaching elementary, middle, and high school students, Dr. Singagliese happily became a school administrator. And when asked why he became a school administrator, he mentioned that it stemmed from the experiences that he had with his past administrators. Looking back at these experiences, Dr. Singagliese recalled how some administrators had influenced him to be a successful teacher. He took into account the things that some administrators had done that were not so helpful in becoming a successful educator. It was after these realizations that he knew that he could positively impact the lives of more children by being able to support more teachers as a school principal.

After serving as a principal for 8 years, he shares his views on what he likes to see when he steps into a classroom. Dr. Singagliese looks for the following: how high is student engagement, is the feel of the classroom warm and caring, and lastly are children learning? Other questions he seeks to answer when he visits one of his classrooms are: Is it a student centered environment where the classroom displays student work and what is it that students are learning?

When asked how he communicates his vision to the school, Dr. Singagliese shared the following: “It is a very slow process that requires the collection of data along with the collaboration of professional learning communities and certain staff members. Working with the commitment of building supervisors, joining Professional Learning Communities as principal, and just listening and talking to staff members, the school vision will be communicated.” He shared that the main goal was not for change to be immediate, but for it to take place over time in order to achieve the school vision. For example, he plans to offer meetings of 15-20 minutes after school with teachers who wish to pursue more professional development.

Building leadership for students and teachers is also a top priority for Dr. Singagliese at Adamsville. He has already started collaborating with 4th graders by empowering them to be the school’s student leaders. An example of this is when he approached the 4th graders during lunch and asked them to brainstorm and write a proposal for how some of the new lunch tables could best be utilized. Currently Adamsville rewards a golden sneaker for the class with the greatest behavior. He gave the fourth graders the opportunity to write a proposal on how sitting at the new lunch tables could be used as incentive for outstanding behavior based on certain criteria that the students thought of. Furthermore, he is asking the school’s representatives from each class, whom are called Adamsville Eagle catchers, “How things are going?” He is interested in all student feedback as to what they notice are the things that are and are not working in their school.

Student leadership is not the only top priority for Dr. Singagliese, but inspiring leadership for the teachers and staff of Adamsville is also at the top of the list. He hopes to build leadership for them by starting with listening. He feels that by listening to individual teachers and staff members he can provide the support that they need and learn about their great ideas. He believes in giving his staff the ownership of their ideas in order to bring them to fruition. For example, when asked by another teacher if she could observe a colleague during instruction, Dr. Singagliese responded by setting up the observation and obtaining the necessary resources in order for everything to take place.

In conclusion, the Adamsville community welcomes Dr. Singagliese along with his leadership and is looking forward to an excellent 2015-2016 school year!