11/5/2009
Road less traveled leads to classroom for St. Andrew’s man
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| Road less traveled leads to classroom for St. Andrew’s man |
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Clarice Keating
For years, the silence in the classroom before students and teachers arrived was a special part of the day for Paul Andrichuk.
That’s when he would walk through Catlin Gabel’s middle school and flip the light switches.
“The click of those lights is just unbelievable,” he said. “You know something good is going to happen here.”
These days, someone else is in charge of that task. Andrichuk is now responsible for dropping off his own children at school — but the administrator’s daily anticipation of exceptional things has not been lost along with his old responsibility.
On the contrary, every day he spends watching these students is another opportunity to learn from their natural curiosity.
Located in Southwest Portland, the independent school teaches preschool through 12th-grade students using progressive values and contemporary practices. Tuition is between $16,500 and $22,500, with approximately 25 percent of students receiving financial aid. The faculty-to-student ratio is seven to one.
Andrichuk isn’t intimidated by the rapid rate of physical and emotional change experienced by the 11- through 14-year-olds at the middle school he runs. He gets great enjoyment out of watching students who take positive risks, and love to learn.
“Kids here tend to take the road less traveled,” Andrichuk said.
And that is a trait he can understand. He’s walked a few of those roads himself.
Originally from North Carolina, Andrichuk attended Catholic grammar and public high schools.
After earning a bachelor’s degree from Oberlin College, he worked for a swimming pool wholesaler. He took the job for a year, but it wasn’t really what he wanted to do. After some soul-searching he decided to look into teaching.
With a history degree, Andrichuk’s undergraduate credits weren’t the right ones needed for acceptance into a master’s of education program, so he opted instead to learn by doing.
That meant applying at independent schools where the hiring committees tend to be more flexible about educational and professional background. When he found his first job, at the Flint School in Oakton, Va., he also coached soccer, lacrosse and basketball.
Andrichuk was voted Educator of the Year by the faculty in 1993 and then again by the students in 1995.
When he finally went to graduate school, he was accepted at John Hopkins University. Instead of studying education, he earned a degree in counseling in 1997.
“I thought it would be an interesting way to become a better teacher,” he said.
That same year, his resume landed on the desk of Lark Palma, head of schools at Catlin Gabel. She chose Andrichuk for a teaching position, so he and his family moved to Portland.
It didn’t take long for him to be promoted from educator to administrator in the middle school. In 2000 he became dean of students, and in 2002 he was hired to lead the middle school.
After being awarded a fellowship, Andrichuk spent a year earning a master’s degree in private school leadership at Columbia University in New York City.
“He’s one of the very best educators I’ve ever worked with,” said Palma, who has been working in the field for 30 years.
Senior Michelle Peretz is amazed most by the Andrichuk’s ability to fulfill his role as an authority figure, while building lasting friendships with his students, past and present.
“Over the past four years of high school Paul has continuously brought me back to the middle school to help with various activities with the middle school students, and I can honestly say that the same holds true,” said Peretz.
The faculty at Catlin Gabel middle school is a group with a lot of different ideas and opinions, but Andrichuk is able to keep them moving in the right direction, Palma said.
Coming from a road less traveled, in this case, turned out to be a valuable attribute for leading the diverse staff of a private middle school.
“He always has a slightly different perspective or cast on something we’re talking about, and that takes us another step,” Palma said.
Many of the principles of his Catholic faith remind Andrichuk of the mission of Catlin Gabel, particularly the emphasis on community, social justice and consensus decision-making.
St. Andrew Parish benefits from Andrichuk’s educational background as well.
He leads a children’s Mass one Sunday each month at the church in the Northeast Portland neighborhood where his family lives. His pupils during these sessions are younger — kindergarten and first-graders.
Sarah Granger volunteers in the same program. The adults lead different age groups of young children in the liturgy of the word with song and stories.
Granger said her young son talks enthusiastically of his lessons with Andrichuk.
“We only hear good things,” she said.
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