{"id":3480,"date":"2023-10-17T12:41:32","date_gmt":"2023-10-17T16:41:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/?p=3480"},"modified":"2023-10-17T12:41:33","modified_gmt":"2023-10-17T16:41:33","slug":"new-river-hill-principal-establishes-tone-for-2023-24-school-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/new-river-hill-principal-establishes-tone-for-2023-24-school-year\/","title":{"rendered":"New River Hill Principal Establishes Tone for 2023-24 School Year"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Sanjana Jain, Staff Writer<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the River Hill community was still digesting the news that former principal Mrs. Mikaela Lidgard, who served for the past two years, won\u2019t be returning for the 2023-24 school year, they were introduced to their new leader: Mr. Robert Motley. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Motley is both a seasoned educator and administrator who has dedicated years to various positions across HCPSS. He began his career by teaching French and Spanish at Atholton High School while consecutively working towards a master\u2019s degree in education so he could become an administrator. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before the school year began – to understand River Hill from an external perspective – Mr. Motley distributed a survey to parents and teachers to say, \u201chelp me understand how you view your school.\u201d After analyzing the survey\u2019s results, \u201cthere were two distinct things that stuck out to me: one was the competitiveness within the school\u2026and the second trend was how many things people are involved in,\u201d he reflected. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In terms of managing River Hill\u2019s competitive nature – a fact that seems to be ingrained in the school\u2019s reputation – Mr. Motley explained that \u201cwhat was disturbing about that was competitiveness to the extent that, tearing down your fellow classmates to look better.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He specified that his intentions aren\u2019t \u201cto get rid of [competitiveness],\u201d but instead to \u201ccome in and say: \u2018Ok, how can we maintain that competitive atmosphere but that we support each other?\u2019 We can both be competitive, we can both be at the top, but I don\u2019t have to pull you down in order for me to be the only one at the top.\u201d He hopes to transform River Hill into a more academically collaborative and socially supportive community. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being involved in too many extracurricular activities is another common aspect of a River Hill student. The main worry is that when students get stretched too thin, it negatively impacts their ability to balance their commitments and subjects them to things like high stress and unmanageable sleep schedules. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Mr. Motley plans to create an environment where students learn that not only is it encouraged but also beneficial to concentrate solely on a few activities \u201cinstead of [doing] twelve kind of mediocre.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both these observations fit into long-term goals for improving River Hill. For short-term goals, \u201cit\u2019s really making sure we\u2019re clear about what\u2019s acceptable, what\u2019s not acceptable, what\u2019s expected, and what\u2019s not expected, so that we\u2019re all on the same page,\u201d explained Mr. Motley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new administration has been vigilant about conveying their expectations since the beginning of this school year; each grade was called for an informative session to discuss these expectations during the first week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Many students believe that the new administration has introduced new rules. However, the presentation which was shared with the student body was the same \u201cfirst-week presentation from last year that talks about all the different rules – we just copied it. There was nothing<\/em> new in that,\u201d clarified Mr. Motley. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He explained that what students may be feeling \u201cis perhaps, a greater enforcement of those rules\u2026and the degree to which they\u2019ve been enforced. That\u2019s the difference.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regardless of the administration\u2019s emphasis on things like the dress code and hawktime, Mr. Motley\u2019s intention is to connect with the River Hill community. He recognizes that \u201cwhen you start a new school it requires an extra amount of energy,\u201d and he has been making a conscious effort to immerse himself in the community by \u201cpopping in classrooms all over\u201d and \u201cgoing to different events every night.\u201d Luckily, \u201ceveryone\u2019s been great. Really welcoming, warm, and inviting like it\u2019s been really nice,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To help make himself more personable among the staff, Mr. Motley went the extra mile and gave them a direct insight into his personality. \u201cI took a personality traits inventory and so out of that came five strengths: input, learner, intellectual, consistent, and deliberative,\u201d he said. He revealed that he received positive feedback from staff, and had \u201ca lot of them [come] to me and [say]: \u2018We\u2019ve never had anyone, like, tell us about themselves like that before and it gives us a little insight into who you are a person.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As to why Mr. Motley was placed at River Hill in the first place, he explained that this cycle of moves was precipitated by the fact that Centennial High School\u2019s former principal, Mrs. Cynthia Dillon, retired, and Mrs. Lidgard requested a leave of absence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In-terms of how the County decided which principals were to be placed at River Hill and Centennial, Mr. Motley explained that \u201cthere are certain, sort of, non-spokens, right, like at a school like Centennial and River Hill, you don\u2019t put new people in those schools. Those schools require someone with a more seasoned background; who\u2019s been doing this for a while.\u201d Due to his years of experience, Mr. Motley knew he would be one of the contenders. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the process behind the \u2018how and why\u2019 of shuffling administrators and staff to different schools is unknown, \u201cI do believe it\u2019s not something done arbitrarily,\u201d stated Mr. Motley. It\u2019s assumed that people find comfort in the fact that even though Dr. Martirano, HCPSS\u2019 Superintendent, decided who gets placed where, \u201c[The Board of Education] is very aware of the moves because the Superintendent has to get them approved by the Board,\u201d explained Mr. Motley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While it is understood that these moves were made with the best intentions in mind, a serious downside to the repositioning process is emotional distress, particularly among staff. \u201cSome people are devastated – they\u2019ve been at their schools for like 10-15 years,\u201d revealed Mr. Motley. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But when he was informed that he\u2019s going to be transferred to River Hill, Mr. Motley\u2019s first thought was, \u201cThat my students are going to hate me because I\u2019m going to the enemy school. I\u2019m like, \u2018Oh my God, my [kids at Atholton] are going to be like: \u2018Why did you leave us to go there<\/em>, you know?\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being a high school principal is an unnerving task that\u2019s only taken on by a select few, but for Mr. Motley, \u201cit really is, in my opinion, the best job ever.\u201d He explained that he \u201c[likes] watching the growth that takes place in students over the course of the four years\u2026and to watch them blossom into seniors.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the past 17 years, Mr. Motley has served as the principal of various middle and high schools, but now, he said, \u201cI can confidently say – because I\u2019ve spoken to Dr. Martirano – that [River Hill] is the last school I\u2019ll ever be at.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His advice for high schoolers: \u201cTake risks, ask questions, challenge yourself, find balance.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Sanjana Jain, Staff Writer While the River Hill community was still digesting the news that former principal Mrs. Mikaela Lidgard, who served for the past two years, won\u2019t be returning for the 2023-24 school year, they were introduced to their new leader: Mr. Robert Motley.  Mr. Motley is both a seasoned educator and administrator…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":3482,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[271,280,286,754,756,292,753,269,211,285,755],"class_list":["post-3480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature","tag-atholton","tag-feature","tag-journalism","tag-motley","tag-move","tag-new","tag-principal","tag-rhhs","tag-river-hill","tag-river-hill-high-school","tag-robert"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/unnamed-16.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3480"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3480\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3483,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3480\/revisions\/3483"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}