John Ciesluk Named 2003Thomas C. Passios Award Winner

National Distinguished Principal

John Ciesluk (left), principal of Wolf Swamp Road School in Longmeadow, receives the Thomas C. Passios Outstanding Principal and National Distinguished Principal Awards for 2003 from Paul Guerrette, the 1994 Passios and NDP Awardee and principal of the Warren Killam Elementary School in Reading.

John is described as “proactive, positive and above all a listener” and
“an effective principal in both the visionary and practical aspects of his responsibilities no matter what the shifting circumstances of the work.” Dr. John H. Ciesluk has endeavored at the Wolf Swamp Road School to champion the Longmeadow motto “eyes on the child learning.” In so doing, he has created a learning community in which teachers, parents and students assume important leadership roles and every child feels that they belong and are expected to achieve at high levels.

John’s career as a principal began in 1980 at the little five-unit Pelham Elementary School in Pelham, MA. There he served for seven years as half time principal, reading consultant and Title I math teacher. In 1987, he moved on to assume the principalship at Wolf Swamp Road School in Longmeadow.
For the past sixteen years, John has been principal of the Wolf Swamp Road School – a suburban, 325 student, kindergarten through grade 4, public school where parents expect all children to be successful learners. Longmeadow is a bedroom community for Springfield and historically has been known for educational excellence. Dr. Ciesluk has had the opportunity to work hand in hand with Superintendent Dr. Thomas P. McGarry, who was hired in Longmeadow the same year. During that tenure, Wolf Swamp Road School has embraced change efforts begun at the district level and initiated several of their own.

The Longmeadow Public Schools worked with Peter Senge and his associates to learn about systemic change. Three years ago, the LPS adopted the Baldrige framework for continuous improvement, and Wolf Swamp students and teachers have benefited greatly from this key initiative.

The staff at Wolf Swamp uses the consensus model to consider school-based change efforts, and over time has been involved in many exciting learning opportunities. The school served as a Massachusetts Professional Development School, a partner school with the Northeast Regional Laboratory and a founding member of the Massachusetts Coalition for the Advancement of Learning sponsored by MESPA. These initiatives led to increased teacher leadership in the areas of curriculum and instruction. Increases in student achievement followed and Wolf Swamp was invited to apply to become a Compass School in January of 2002.

Dr. Ciesluk has encouraged teacher leadership throughout his tenure at Wolf Swamp. Over time, several kindergarten through grade 4 vertical teams have formed with strong and effective teacher chairs. The school currently has a math team, a literacy team, a technology team and a child study team. Every teacher is expected to serve the school on at least one of its vertical teams and to make a positive impact on improving student learning. The math team has recently adopted a new school wide pretest and posttest system and math facts program. The literacy team leads the administration and scoring of the fall and spring writing prompt. Finally, six teachers and the principal comprise The Learning Team, which exists to oversee the progress on the three school goals. In addition to the chairs of the different vertical teams, teachers on TLT assume roles as parent education consultant, web master and data/survey consultant.
Parent involvement is key at Wolf Swamp. The school’s students and teachers realize the fruits of an incredible PTO and cadre of volunteers on a daily basis. Among the more innovative and sophisticated contributions parents make include coordinating and teaching a Writing Enrichment Program for fourth graders and sponsoring an After School Enrichment Program that includes such varied topics as movie making, scrap booking and board games. Numerous parents volunteer in the building on a daily basis. They serve as classroom helpers in kindergarten, score math pretests and posttests and assist students at computer workstations. Parents see all and do all at Wolf Swamp Road School.

Student responsibility is expected and encouraged at Wolf Swamp. All fourth grade students at Wolf Swamp assume important positions of self-responsibility. The spring of their third grade year they complete a job application to serve in at least one community service role as a fourth grader. Wolf Swamp fourth graders are safety patrollers, hall monitors, lunchroom assistants, kindergarten helpers, as well as gym, art, library and music helpers. Last year, all of the students received a presidential certificate from President Bush. Parent volunteers coordinate this program, as well.

The most noteworthy recent achievement at school is the total commitment of the school’s staff to the adoption of the Baldrige Framework for Continuous Improvement. All staff has received at least a beginning level of Baldrige training and the tools and strategies learned are being contagiously implemented throughout the building. Even the custodial staff have become involved, surveying the staff about the work they do. Baldrige training and subsequent study group work has led to a new mission statement developed by all staff members and posted for all to see, and the translation of the school’s goals into “kid friendly” ones. Most importantly, students demonstrate greater understanding of learning expectations and their responsibility for setting learning goals. Students are working harder and learning more. Teachers add their new ideas to a Baldrige binder that is housed in the staff lounge.

Throughout his twenty-three year career as an elementary principal, Dr. Ciesluk has served MESPA in a variety of capacities. As a member of the Professional Development Committee, he helped draft the original Early Childhood Position Paper and develop the MESPA Certification Program. As a participant in national workshops and leadership meetings he helped to promulgate the tenets of the Certification Program. John served as State Representative to NAESP, and during his term in office, MESPA became unified with NAESP. In 1992, as MESPA President, John signed on the dotted line to borrow the money necessary to purchase the current MESPA Headquarters. In leading the cause for both effective early childhood programs and inclusion all students in our schools, John was responsible for securing internationally known speakers Lilian Katz and Norman Kunc to present at MESPA fall and spring conferences. Currently, Dr. Ciesluk serves as MESPA’s representative to MassPartrners.
John lives on a one hundred acre farm in rural New Salem, which borders the Quabbin Reservoir, with his wife Jane and stepson Dylan. John has two children in college. Maia is a junior at Marlboro College, and Jay is a freshman at Wheaton College.

Past Passios Award Recipients