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Mostly Cloudy LWA welcomes Brian O’Connell
Whether outside shaking hands or fist-bumping with students, or chatting with them in or outside a classroom, Lawrence Woodmere Academy Headmaster Brian O’Connell is comfortable in his new job.
O’Connell, 52, began what he calls the “finale” of his 28-year-long educational career on March 2. “This is very exciting,” he said as he and interim Head of School Mary Barton — whom he worked with at P.S. 236 in the Mill Basin section of Brooklyn in the 1990s — greeted students on Monday. “It feels like the first day of school. The children seem happy to come to school.”
This was the first of many observations O’Connell made with a Herald reporter in tow for the first two hours of his new job. Anticipating a journalist’s questions, the former principal of Scholars’ Academy, in Rockaway Park, said that the first few weeks would be about assessment and becoming familiar with the culture of LWA, a nonsectarian private school in Woodmere that traces its history to the 19th century and is the product of a 1990 merger of Lawrence Country Day School, founded in 1891, and the Woodmere Academy, established in 1912.
At a morning school assembly, O’Connell introduced himself to the student body, which includes, in the lower, middle and upper schools, pre-kindergartners to high school seniors.
He detailed a portion of his background, which includes attending St. Francis de Sales Catholic Academy, in the Belle Harbor section of Rockaway, and establishing the Scholars’ Academy Middle School, then the high school. “I was a student first, and have always promoted teaching that engages the students,” he said. “I’m looking to understand the LWA culture, and move the school to the next level.” He encouraged the students to sing the school’s alma mater, led by fifth-grader Aoibhinn Williams.
In the brief time that Barton has served as head of school, her appreciation of LWA has grown, she said. “I believe the best part of Lawrence Woodmere Academy is that we’re a family, all here together supporting one and all,” she said at the assembly. “Three divisions, one family.” Barton was hired in September, after Head of School Barbra Barth Feldman died in August. Barton remains a consultant and is helping to establish the LWA Asia International School in Shenzhen, China. Because of the coronavirus epidemic, however, the project has been put on hold until next year, she said.
After the assembly, O’Connell, an All-City fullback during his high school days, walked through the school with a cup of coffee in his hand and asked, “How ya doing?” He spoke with high school students in the cafeteria who were waiting for second period, and imparted some life lessons that included thinking about their lives beyond college. He talked briefly to a pre-K class that was celebrating Dr. Seuss’s birthday by wearing pajamas.
Across the hall, he buzzed into a middle school art class where students were learning about the artist Romero Britto. “I love burritos,” O’Connell cracked, making the girls giggle.
In Howard Mo’s high school website design class, Mo explained to O’Connell what the nine students were learning and how they were going about it. “It’s about how to build a webpage and build up the students’ skill set,” he said. “We’re seeing how it works, understanding how things work, how we use and what we do with it.”
O’Connell pointed out that the students need to “understand how [a website] works to make it better and direct the tech people” — offering them the idea that they could not only build a website, but also manage people and possibly own a business.
On the move again, he told the Herald that plans were in the works to renovate the school’s open mezzanine, with the upstairs enclosed with glass and devoted to science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM, classes, as well as the arts. Plans for the downstairs remain unclear.
Partnerships are also being established with St. Francis College, in Brooklyn, to give LWA students the chance to earn college credits, he added, and LWA teachers will serve as mentors to Adelphi University educational students.
“I have pre-K to grade 12 under one roof,” O’Connell concluded “I’m as excited now as I’ve ever been.”
