Moving Forward
Kolek looks to continue system at TMS

After helping to establish the Legacy Early College High School program at Temple College at Taylor, Principal Richard Kolek has moved into the Taylor school district as the new middle school principal.

With 18 years in education, two of them serving bright high schoolers in Legacy’s unique accelerated learning environment, Kolek is prepared for a variety of teaching situations; but, in middle school education, he has “found his niche,” he said.

“Over the years you figure it out — where you best fit,” Kolek said. “At any level, kids have so much to learn, but you can make such an impact in middle school. They’re going from elementary to secondary and as a part of that transition, you can impact their lives. I think it’s such a pivotal point where we can catch the kids and start leading them in the right direction.”

There are few problems at the middle school so far — in fact, Kolek said he has identified none at all. His first year as principal will involve making small adjustments to the already outstanding system former principal Danny Ward helped to establish.

“We’re going in the right direction,” Kolek said. “Ward did a great job here, and it’s time to pick up the pace. It’s just a matter of tweaking things a little bit to help them work more efficiently.”

Kolek plans to target students who are falling behind or who enroll in middle school already behind to help them catch up, the ultimate goal to achieve a Recognized status for the campus under the Texas Education Agency Accountability Rating system.

“The vision is to make sure every kid is successful and moving every kid forward,” Kolek said. “That’s going to involve making sure our staff, administration and students are working as one cohesive unit to meet the challenge. Just like anything else, it’s going to take hard work and a team effort to get there, but it’s definitely a reachable goal. It’s going to take everybody working on the same page.”

As a part of this philosophy, Kolek plans to let the kids in on what the accountability rating system is, what the current numbers are and how they can improve. From time to time, Kolek plans to host 30-minute student data assemblies to inform students about how they are performing.

These sessions will occur during a new Duck Advisory period, a tutorial during the school day where students may work on homework, work through difficult concepts with a teacher, focus on Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills concepts or other items.

“That advisory period will be a targeted, structured time to give students the opportunity to complete their assignments,” Kolek said. “Every six weeks we will do the student data assemblies during that time, where we pull the kids out by grade level, talk about the pass rate and the fail rate and discipline and the testing accountability process so they understand what it takes.”

Hopefully keeping the students informed will instill in them a pride for their campus and the district, encouraging them to work a little harder to achieve accountability goals.

In addition, Kolek has established the Summer School Now program, where students who fail a course can work during the Duck Advisory period to make up the failed class. The concept is intended to mirror summer school classes, but will occur during the school year. This will not replace normal summer school, Kolek said.

In a way, Kolek is an expert on accelerated learning, having come from the Legacy program, where students attend a full course load of dual-credit courses to earn both a high school diploma and two years of college credit in four years. But the greatest advantage the experience leading Legacy has given Kolek is the ability to recruit more students at the middle school level, he said.

“Legacy is not for everybody, but I know the type of student that Legacy is designed to help,” Kolek said. “So I can start talking to them down to the sixth and seventh grade now and help them in that direction. (Before I took this job,) we would do an assembly to recruit students; now I’m going to be able to talk to the kids in the hallways and at lunch time.”

Kolek started his career in Victoria, where he spent eight years as a teacher and a coach and two years in administration. He moved to Hutto in 2003 and took a job in Thrall as principal, then later took a job in Rockdale to serve as assistant principal and later principal. In 2007, he started on as the Legacy principal and worked there for two years.

“This is where I need to be,” Kolek said. “One of the things TMS needs is consistency — a leader who stays — and I hope to bring that consistency here.”