LAKEWOOD — Principal Dale Leach arrived with foot-long sub sandwiches.
The students showed up with their appetites and some thoughts to share.
At Lakewood High School, Leach hosts a monthly Lunch with the Principal.
He opens his wallet for the meal and his office to students who are willing to sit for a chat.
“We have 800 students, and this job requires a lot of management. So the challenge for me was how do I get kids to talk with me?” Leach said. “The answer was food. Food lubricates the tongues of teens.”
Last week, best friends Carrie Enyeart, 15, a sophomore, and Skyler Cliffton, 16, a junior, met with Leach. They came ready to eat and eager to share their thoughts.
“Mr. Leach is the best,” Carrie said.
First, though, Leach asked the girls about their classes.
One admitted she is struggling a bit, and Leach offered a few suggestions for better study habits and working with her teachers.
With a background teaching English and history, Leach also told the students that he is happy to help with those subjects when he can.
The girls wondered why Leach wanted to be a principal at Lakewood, and he told them that he likes the size of the school and the community. The girls rolled their eyes.
“Small is good, because we know everybody,” Skyler said. “Because we’re small, though, we also have more fights at school.”
Skyler and Carrie complained about the impending loss, because of budget cuts, of the Snohomish County sheriff’s deputy who spends part of his day at the school. At the same time they also voiced concerns about the video cameras on school buses and around the campus.
“We should be able to talk about anything we want to,” Carrie said. “But I guess it’s OK to catch the people who do graffiti.”
Leach asked for suggestions for improvements at school.
“We need a wall where people can write whatever they want as long as it’s not bad,” Carrie said.
“And we need an outdoor sitting area for students,” Skyler said. “Take out the gravel and plant grass.”
Jerry Jenkins, superintendent of Educational Service District 189, calls Leach’s Lunch with the Principal a great idea.
Often, principals are seen by students as unapproachable disciplinarians and unfriendly rule enforcers, Jenkins said. What Leach does with his lunch program helps break down those assumptions.
“For too many kids, school is the stabilizing factor in their lives,” Jenkins said. “It’s commendable that an administrator invests this sort of time in building relationships with kids.”
Leach started Lunch with the Principal last spring and sometimes invites as many as four students to eat with him.
“Whatever it costs me for the meal, it’s money well spent,” Leach said. “The kids relax and I get as unfiltered a commentary as I am going to get. They know all sorts of stuff that I don’t.”
Sometimes what Leach doesn’t know includes the difficult home situations faced by some students.
During their lunch last week, one of the girls shared news about a serious illness in her family.
“Now when I see her in the halls, I’ll remember to ask how things are going,” Leach said.
Gale Fiege: 425-339-3427; gfiege@heraldnet.com.
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