A year of firsts - principal and students become ‘family’

By Emily Richmond

Saturday, June 9, 2007 | 7:32 a.m.

On the first day of the academic year at Burk Alternative High School, the new campus boss, Ron Lustig, was fumbling at the door, searching for the correct key on a heavy ring loaded with wrong ones.

Fast forward to this week: With the year at a close, Lustig knows every key on his ring and every inch of what is now his campus. Students constantly hail him and, in return, he greets each by name.

"This is a family," Lustig said.

And this is the good feeling of completing your first year as a principal.

After less than 10 years as an educator in Florida, Lustig was lured here by the promise of quick advancement. In no time, he was running a school of his own.

Here is Lustig's inaugural year, collapsed to a postcard:

He incorporated into daily campus life a character-education program created by Eunice Kennedy Shriver and the Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Foundation to promote caring, respect, responsibility, trust and family.

"This year was all about buying into the philosophy," Lustig said.

Every Wednesday at 1 p.m., Lustig and teachers met with some of the school's most at-risk students to provide a forum for informal discussion and support.

"It's all about relationships, and relating to the kids," said Lustig, who rarely ends a conversation or leaves a room without patting someone on the back, shaking a hand or offering a compliment.

He's quick to praise Burk's faculty and support employees for their efforts to improve both the campus environment and student achievement. Thanks to 13 Saturday tutoring sessions staffed by teachers who volunteered their time, Burk's pass rate on the math proficiency test jumped to 14 percent from 9 percent.

Lustig was also grateful to the school's community partners, including Brenden Theatres and the Palms. Gift certificates were regularly handed out for perfect attendance or improved academics.

"For a lot of these kids it was the first time they had ever been singled out for something positive at school," Lustig said.

The National Center for Community of Caring - which sponsored the character education program - named Lustig Principal of the Year.

Burk also had a 100 percent participation rate on the all-important March sitting of a proficiency test used to measure student progress under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

"He's doing terrific things over there, I'm very proud of him," said Edward Goldman, associate superintendent of the district's education services division, which oversees the alternative schools.

Although the 2006-07 school year may be over, Lustig's work isn't done. He's tutoring senior Jordan Mihajlovich - the prom king, in fact - who came within one point of passing the math proficiency exam last month, and will try again in July. With a passing score he'll be able to trade his Certificate of Attendance for a full diploma, and enroll in college in the fall.

"You're going to do it this time, I know it," Lustig tells Jordan.

The principal and the prom king tap their fists together.

Then, on this last day of school for the year, they bend heads back over the math textbook, and get back to work.