To the shock and delight of Dr. David Root, Rocky River Middle School principal, sixthgraders don Root masks at an awards assembly last week, filling the school, for just a few minutes with Dr. Roots. Root was named the 2006 Ohio Middle School Distinguished Principal earlier this year. (Photo courtesy Robin Reinbold)

Hijinks in the halls honor top principal
By Jennifer Mitchell
City
Published Nov. 15, 2006

Between the masked students and a visit by Mayor Pamela Bobst, many may have wondered about the hijinks in the halls at Rocky River Middle School last week. The explanation is simple — students collaborated to find all kinds of ways to say “thank you” to the man in charge, Principal David Root.

In May, the Ohio Association of Elementary School Administrators named Root, who has headed up the middle school since 1996, the 2006 Ohio Middle School Distinguished Principal. He was nominated by Assistant Principal Gweynn Hampel.

Though he’s instituted several student-friendly programs during his tenure, the U.S. Department of Education recognized the middle school as Blue Ribbon School and many parents are amazed at his way with students, his young charges likely wanted to show their appreciation for an entirely different reason; Root makes school fun. In 2005, when he and Hampel donned sumo wresting suits to kick off a school fund-raiser, it was par for the course, said Kim Pease of the school’s Parent-Teacher Association, this spring.

“He has this marvelous, marvelous sense of humor,” Mayor Bobst said, whose three children have all had Root as a principal. “He gets kids, which is so terrific. They love him.”

Representing residents, city administration and council, Bobst brought a proclamation in Root’s honor to the school last week.

Someone told Root to turn on the in-school educational television broadcast. When he did, he saw Bobst. Root said he thought it was great to see the mayor talking to the children. Then he realized she was talking about him.

Bobst declared Nov. 8 as “Dr. David B. Root Day” in recognition of him being named distinguished principal of the year.

“It was impressive,” Root said. “I thought it was kind of done and over. I was touched by the whole thing. I was very moved.”

The recognition didn’t end there. Throughout the day and the next morning, during the school’s quarterly awards programs, each class had a different surprise for their principal.

“It was quite exciting,” Root said. “My eighth grade choir wrote and sang a song to me.” Each class also gave him a scrapbook and the sixth-graders had another trick up their sleeves, or rather, on their faces.

As they quietly filed in for an assembly, Root wondered at the silence.

“I thought, ‘gee, what did I do to deserve this?’” Root said. “I had no idea what was up.”

He soon found out when students pulled masks with snapshots of their principal’s face over their heads.

“There were a bunch of different pictures; I’ve never seen so many ugly faces in one place in my entire life,” Root joked. “I was very touched by the whole process.”

With his statewide recognition, Root joins second-in-command Hampel, who in 2005 was honored by the National Association of Secondary School Administrators as the state’s Assistant Principal of the Year.