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’t 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 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’s degree in education so he could become an administrator.
Before the school year began – to understand River Hill from an external perspective – Mr. Motley distributed a survey to parents and teachers to say, “help me understand how you view your school.” After analyzing the survey’s results, “there were two distinct things that stuck out to me: one was the competitiveness within the school…and the second trend was how many things people are involved in,” he reflected.
In terms of managing River Hill’s competitive nature – a fact that seems to be ingrained in the school’s reputation – Mr. Motley explained that “what was disturbing about that was competitiveness to the extent that, tearing down your fellow classmates to look better.”
He specified that his intentions aren’t “to get rid of [competitiveness],” but instead to “come in and say: ‘Ok, how can we maintain that competitive atmosphere but that we support each other?’ We can both be competitive, we can both be at the top, but I don’t have to pull you down in order for me to be the only one at the top.” He hopes to transform River Hill into a more academically collaborative and socially supportive community.
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.
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 “instead of [doing] twelve kind of mediocre.”
Both these observations fit into long-term goals for improving River Hill. For short-term goals, “it’s really making sure we’re clear about what’s acceptable, what’s not acceptable, what’s expected, and what’s not expected, so that we’re all on the same page,” explained Mr. Motley.
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.
Many students believe that the new administration has introduced new rules. However, the presentation which was shared with the student body was the same “first-week presentation from last year that talks about all the different rules – we just copied it. There was nothing new in that,” clarified Mr. Motley.
He explained that what students may be feeling “is perhaps, a greater enforcement of those rules…and the degree to which they’ve been enforced. That’s the difference.”
Regardless of the administration’s emphasis on things like the dress code and hawktime, Mr. Motley’s intention is to connect with the River Hill community. He recognizes that “when you start a new school it requires an extra amount of energy,” and he has been making a conscious effort to immerse himself in the community by “popping in classrooms all over” and “going to different events every night.” Luckily, “everyone’s been great. Really welcoming, warm, and inviting like it’s been really nice,” he said.
To help make himself more personable among the staff, Mr. Motley went the extra mile and gave them a direct insight into his personality. “I took a personality traits inventory and so out of that came five strengths: input, learner, intellectual, consistent, and deliberative,” he said. He revealed that he received positive feedback from staff, and had “a lot of them [come] to me and [say]: ‘We’ve never had anyone, like, tell us about themselves like that before and it gives us a little insight into who you are a person.’”
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’s former principal, Mrs. Cynthia Dillon, retired, and Mrs. Lidgard requested a leave of absence.
In-terms of how the County decided which principals were to be placed at River Hill and Centennial, Mr. Motley explained that “there are certain, sort of, non-spokens, right, like at a school like Centennial and River Hill, you don’t put new people in those schools. Those schools require someone with a more seasoned background; who’s been doing this for a while.” Due to his years of experience, Mr. Motley knew he would be one of the contenders.
While the process behind the ‘how and why’ of shuffling administrators and staff to different schools is unknown, “I do believe it’s not something done arbitrarily,” stated Mr. Motley. It’s assumed that people find comfort in the fact that even though Dr. Martirano, HCPSS’ Superintendent, decided who gets placed where, “[The Board of Education] is very aware of the moves because the Superintendent has to get them approved by the Board,” explained Mr. Motley.
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. “Some people are devastated – they’ve been at their schools for like 10-15 years,” revealed Mr. Motley.
But when he was informed that he’s going to be transferred to River Hill, Mr. Motley’s first thought was, “That my students are going to hate me because I’m going to the enemy school. I’m like, ‘Oh my God, my [kids at Atholton] are going to be like: ‘Why did you leave us to go there, you know?’’
Being a high school principal is an unnerving task that’s only taken on by a select few, but for Mr. Motley, “it really is, in my opinion, the best job ever.” He explained that he “[likes] watching the growth that takes place in students over the course of the four years…and to watch them blossom into seniors.”
Over the past 17 years, Mr. Motley has served as the principal of various middle and high schools, but now, he said, “I can confidently say – because I’ve spoken to Dr. Martirano – that [River Hill] is the last school I’ll ever be at.”
His advice for high schoolers: “Take risks, ask questions, challenge yourself, find balance.”