Lisnik’s path to PIHS principalship
started in 1997
By Scott Mitchell Johnson
DONNA LISNIK, right, new principal at Presque Isle High School, has been busy this summer getting ready for the start of the 2010-11 academic year. The Presque Isle native replaces Eric Waddell, who resigned in April to become the new curriculum director of SAD 35 in Eliot. Lisnik had previously been the assistant principal at PIHS for five years. Here, she goes over some paperwork with Judy Cleaves, administrative assistant to the principal. The first day of school at PIHS is Wednesday, Aug. 18.
PRESQUE ISLE – To say that Donna Lisnik is “as giddy as a school girl” would be an understatement. The new Presque Isle High School principal simply cannot wait for Aug. 18 – the first day of school.
“I just can’t wait for the first day with students. I can’t wait to be able to say, ‘Good morning, this is Mrs. Lisnik, your new principal at Presque Isle High School. Welcome.’ I am so looking forward to that.”
Lisnik, a Presque Isle native, replaces Eric Waddell, who resigned in April to become the new curriculum director of SAD 35 in Eliot.
Lisnik had previously been the assistant principal at PIHS for five years. Before that she was the principal at Easton Junior-Senior High School for five years, and a math teacher at PIHS for 13 years.
“Right out of high school I went to college to be a dental hygienist,” she said. “I worked for Dr. Richard Dick and did that until our youngest child was in kindergarten. I was able to work full-time for quite a while, but then part-time once we had our three kids.”
Upon learning that Dr. Dick was going to retire, Lisnik knew she didn’t want to work for another dentist.
“He was just so good, so I decided I needed a new career,” she said. “I went back to school to become an accountant. When you’re training to be an accountant, you take lots and lots of math courses. One of my patients said to me, ‘You’ll never make it as an accountant because you will be lonely and you will miss working with people’ so I started looking at other options. I loved working with math, so it looked like being a math teacher would be fun and interesting; that’s the career path I took.”
Lisnik received a bachelor of science degree in mathematics education and a bachelor of arts degree in history from the University of Maine at Presque Isle.
“I finished my degree in history in 1986 and my degree in math in 1987 and then I did my master’s in educational leadership through the University of Southern Maine,” she said. “I started teaching at PIHS in 1987 when our oldest son left home.”
It was at a tournament game in February of 1997 when Lisnik decided she wanted to turn her attention to the administrative arena.
“I saw Dick Durost, who was the principal at PIHS when I was teaching, in the crowd and I went to talk to him and said, ‘I’m thinking of going back to get my master’s degree in educational leadership … what do you think?’ and he said I should absolutely do it,” she said. “I told him then, ‘I want to be the principal of Presque Isle High School.’
“I had to wait 10 years,” said Lisnik, “but good things come to those who wait. I plan to retire in this position. I’m looking at another five years. I’m hoping that during that time I can make some positive changes in the school.”
Though being an administrator for the last 10 years, Lisnik said she loved being a teacher.
“I loved every minute of it,” she said. “I still tutor kids here when I get a chance. If a student’s having a hard time sometimes their study hall teacher will say, ‘Can so-and-so come down and you could go over this with him for a minute?’ I love it. Teaching is really incredible.”
The roles of assistant principal and principal are quite different, Lisnik said.
“When I was the principal in Easton, I did all the discipline, all the attendance, all the curriculum, evaluating teachers … everything. When I came back here, my role was narrower. I did attendance, discipline, worked with new teachers, set up some of the testing, but it was very different,” she said. “It was very difficult getting used to because I was the leader in Easton and here I was working with Mr. Waddell who was the leader. I came back here as assistant principal because I wanted to be principal, and I knew that was the route to take.
“As principal, my focus will be on leadership, the curriculum, and watching that our test scores increase every year,” said Lisnik. “We have accreditation in two years which is huge. We’re going to do a self-study that’s going to tell us who we really are, what we need to improve and what we’re doing well.”
Lisnik has already mapped out some goals for herself in her new position.
“I want to increase some of the English/language arts scores on our testing, promote literacy across the curriculum so that we’re looking at literacy not just in English/language arts but in science, math, social studies, art … whatever it happens to be. That is a main goal of mine.
“I also want to get through the accreditation process positively, and work with teachers which is very, very important because every time you help teachers, you help students. There’s a lot of differences in technology now, and I want our teachers to be able to use the new technology with our students because that’s where our students are; that’s where they live.”
When Lisnik was teaching, she wasn’t using blackboards; she was using overhead projectors.
“I do not like chalkboards,” she said. “I always used an overhead projector, and we used our computers to hook up the graphing calculators so we could show what was going on. I’ve always kept up with technology … even in the late ‘80s. You can’t be an educational leader now if you don’t understand technology and if you don’t understand the technology that our kids are using. I think I have a pretty good handle on technology; it’s something that I’ve stayed up-to-date with.”
In addition to her technological prowess, the new principal said there are other attributes she brings to the position.
“I bring experience and people skills,” said Lisnik. “I bring people onboard with me and people respect me. I think public relations is important in this position and I think I’m good at that. I also know how to teach and I know how to help others, as well.”
Recognizing that students today are more technologically driven, Lisnik said teens also have more challenges facing them.
“I think today’s students still have goals. I think they have a lot of outside pressures that maybe my kids didn’t have when they came here,” she said. “Our standards are still the same for behavior; we expect our students to be respectful, take care of the school, do their work and set goals for themselves. These students are busy. They have jobs, are in athletics, plays; we have Advanced Placement courses that we didn’t have in ’87. Our expectations are very high. Ninety-five percent of our students are here for a reason – to get an education. We’re working very hard with the other 5 percent to bring them on board. We want everybody to be successful.”
Lisnik is optimistic that the 2010-11 academic year will be a great one.
“I graduated from here, so I have a personal interest in this school,” she said. “My Mom graduated from PIHS, as did my husband, John, and our three children, John, Eric and Allison. Some of my grandchildren will be attending here some day.
“There’s an attachment to this school. I love this school because it’s been a part of my life since I was 14,” said Lisnik, “so anything I do for this school will be with the best of intentions.”
