Christopher Chank is our principal at the Early College in the High School-Smart Transfer program and the SSFA Musical Theater Program at Proctors.
We tend to fail in recognising the people right in front of us and our principal is one of them. From being the man in a suit everyday we see at the school, front door or somewhere in the halls helping students, or assisting in some type of way.
With his title, it’s obvious that he is very important. His job is very time consuming and he makes a lot of decisions.
So who is Mr. Chank?
He has been in education for 30 years. Although he has spent a long time in the education system, that was not always his dream. His dream in the beginning before getting into teaching was to be a meteorologist. He later found out that dream wasn’t realistic since physics was not his strong suit.
He became a teacher at the ripe age of 23, working for five years at Notre Dame-Bishop Gibbons before coming to Schenectady High in 2000. In all, the former National Board Certified teacher spent 14 years of his career teaching History.
His life before being a teacher included being an average student, describing himself as an “underachiever,” and he worked at random restaurants as do most students, during high school.
Before his current position, he was the principal of Schenectady School of Fine Arts at the high school and the Executive Principal of Schenectady High School. He believes he was chosen to be the first principal of the City as our Campus school because he had a relationship with the students at Proctors.
A Typical Day
So what does a typical day look like for Mr. Chank?
Apparently, very busy. It starts off with the “busing.” As a student that attends the Early College in the High School program, I often see him almost every morning waiting at the front door of the school with a safety officer to check in on students with an enthusiastic, “How are you!” As a regular, he also does that after school, making sure students get into the bus safely and leaving to go to their after school club.
He also assists during lunch making sure everyone has a meal and checking in on everyone even in the hallways during passing periods. Not only does he take care of the students at Center City, he also goes across the street to check in and do something very similar to the musical theater students at Proctors.
Behind the Scenes
Everyone knows what Mr. Chank does day to day but who is he behind the scenes?
He was a part of a Black Lives Matter March where he and other protestors faced lying down in front of the Schenectady County Jail to symbolize the 2020 death of George Floyd.
Mr. Chank likes to travel, swim and read. He lives in the Mohonasen Central School District in Rotterdam, but all three of his children graduated from Schenectady High. He has visited 48 out of the 50 states of America, which some may say is very cool.
His biggest pet peeve is teachers or workers in general who are in the education industry that lose their focus on what brought them into education, namely the students.
He loves education and would not see himself doing anything else in the near future.
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