Lisa Pawelak never aspired to be a school principal. But she is suddenly the new principal of Lucy Laney Elementary School, the place she hopes to stay “forever.”

By Kenzie O'Keefe Editor | Photos by David Pierini Staff Reporter

Lisa Pawelak has suddenly found herself in a spotlight after more than a decade behind the scenes at Lucy Laney Elementary School.

After former principal Mauri Friestleben left Laney to lead North High School in August, Pawelak was named interim principal just weeks before the 2019-20 school year began—and weeks before the feature length documentary about the school, Love Them First, became widely available online.

In typical Laney fashion, Pawelak turned what some might see as a set of challenges into motivation to rise to an occasion. She decided to embrace the attention and encourage her staff and students to “Shine your light,” the motto she chose for this school year.

This month, she spoke to North News about her desire to lead Laney long term, her home life in Willard Hay, and her commitment to living in alignment with her beliefs.

This interview has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.

You’re originally from Illinois. How did you end up working and living in North Minneapolis? I'm 40 now. I've officially been in Minnesota longer than I was in Illinois. I came for college when I was 17. I loved it and I never left. I originally wanted to be a veterinarian, but I developed some pretty severe allergies to animals in high school. My father is a school social worker and my mother is a school nurse, and so I just slid into that social work major in college. After an internship and AmeriCorps, I decided I wanted to work in the schools. I had two choices: I could get my teaching license or I could get my master's degree in social work. I decided to go the social work route. I knew I wanted to work in Minneapolis, and I've always wanted to live and work and go to church in the same community. I applied for paraprofessional jobs and I got one at Jordan Park School, which is now Hmong International Academy. My husband and I moved to North. That was about 20 years ago.

What neighborhood do you live in? Willard Hay. We were on 16th and Irving for a number of years. Then we moved three blocks down to 16th and Logan.

How did you end up at Laney? It's my 13th year here in this building. I came as the social worker in 2007 and then I moved into the assistant principal role when Mauri moved into the principalship. I didn't have any aspirations or dreams to be a school administrator at all. She dragged me a little bit, kicking and screaming. And then I adjusted. The assistant principal was a good fit. I did that for six and a half years and then she got the opportunity to go to North High. Again, I was pushed, kicking and screaming.

You’re currently interim principal. Why the interim title? Mauri was offered and accepted the principal role at North High on Aug. 2. I was named as interim of Laney the same day. There wasn't enough time to do the typical process of canvassing the community, getting an interview team together, having people apply, doing interviews and things. Because of the timing, the superintendent named me as interim for the whole year. And at some point this year, Laney will go through the principal interview process.

Will you be a candidate? I hope so. I would like to work here forever. Laney has a really strong history of growing our own. I'm one example of that. Right now I don't use the title interim. I feel like it brings a level of instability, and whether I am Laney’s permanent principal or not, I am going to lead in a permanent way for the time that I'm here.

I heard a rumor that Laney is one of the only, if not the only school in North Minneapolis that has a waiting list. Is that true? And if so, what do you think makes it that anomaly? We are over-enrolled. The district will do enrollment projections every spring. We were budgeted and funded for just over 400. I believe we're around 40 over right now. I have been told that we are the most requested school. I don't know about an official wait list. I heard that rumor also, but I have not seen a list.

Why do you think Laney is the most requested school? We have staff in the right positions. We have teachers who care deeply, and we have listened to the needs of our families and responded to those needs in a way that treats each one of the children as if they are our own family members. Because of that, our parents have grown to trust us, and give us the benefit of a doubt. And it also brings out the best in children. When you see the children for their purity of who they are, they want to show you their best selves. They'll see you walking down the hall and they'll stand a little straighter, and their chest will puff out a little bit because they want you to see them. They want to show you what you already see in them.

Pawelak selected “Shine your light” as the school’s motto. “That’s what we’re doing, we are shining bright,” she said.

How has the release of the feature length documentary about the school, impacted day to day life at the school? I was probably one of the most hesitant and skeptical staff people around KARE11 coming in, in the first place. But we are public servants. We are paid with taxpayer dollars, and we are raising, teaching, and educating the community's children so there's no reason to have closed doors. I never thought we had something to hide, but I think it's easy to come in as a media person and take a little snapshot, but the systems and structures that we have set up in public education are very deep, and there are a lot of painful layers. I was like, "Are you really going to stay? What are you going to see? How are our children going to look through your eyes?" But I think they did a great job. Mauri had no intention of leaving Lucy Laney, but having her go has impacted the spread of the documentary in a good way because we say all the time, "Lucy Laney is not the only Lucy Laney." We are not the only school that is fighting to do everything we can to do right by our children. We're just the only school that had two reporters from KARE11 in the building following us, primarily Mauri, a lot.

Speaking of Mauri being a central figure in the film, what's it been like just to follow in the footsteps of such a well-known and celebrated principal? She's an amazing leader. I worked side-by-side with her for 10 years. She taught me a lot. This is what she raised me for. She still supports me. Nobody could be Mauri. Mauri is Mauri. And I am Lisa. I try to lead with a deep humility and with servant leadership because we are a team. No one person, no one leader, even if they are the best known and they are the best leader, they can't do it alone. Lucy Laney is strong and we are very deep in our strength.

Whether you're principal for a year or for the long term, what are your hopes and dreams for Laney? I want Lucy Laney to be a place that leads the way for us as a society to drop some of our prejudices, and some of our biases around who our children are and what they come with. We have a very deficit-based way of thinking about children of color, particularly African and Native American children. And there is nothing wrong with our kids. None of them. Everybody comes differently. We do not love all of our children first.

What's this year's school motto? It's “shine your light.” Our professional development focus with the staff this year, is around language and dialect. I also knew the documentary was coming out publicly. The title is Love Them First; this is a love of high expectation, this is a love of firmness, this is a love of providing you the supports you need to reach those expectations and to help you navigate this system that is set up against you. The beacon of light kept coming to me. And I was like, "Shine your light." That's what we're doing, we are shining bright. That's what having a documentary does too; is it shines its light. We might as well embrace it.

What keeps you up at night? I worry about a lot of things and I know that worry gets you nowhere. So, I try really hard not to, but I think about the impact that the state designation has. I think about how much pressure our teachers put on themselves to move the children in proficiency and in growth. Our teachers take it so personally, and they care so deeply. I wish I could pull some of that burden off of them. We are in our last year of a five year school improvement grant. We've prepped and planned well for the end of that grant, but I'm worried about that. It's taking up a lot of my brain space—thinking about budgeting and leading through a budget season where, not only are we ending this grant, but our district is also facing a $19 million budget gap for next school year. But we will be okay. My faith is really strong. And I don't believe that momentum like this will be stopped easily.

When you're feeling stuck, who do you call? Or who do you look to? I go to God. I look to the word in the Bible.

Who do you look up to and admire? I'm trying not to say Mauri because I already said her name a few times. My daughters. They are 12 and 13 and go to Franklin. I won the parenting lottery.

There are district educators who don't choose to send their kids district schools. Why have you made the choice to keep your kids here for the entirety of their education? I believe strongly in the public schools, and I believe strongly that some of our segregated realities are the responsibility of the parents of white children, like myself, to change and to shift. If I want to be credible, I need to do that in practice. I don't believe that it is a compromise to choose to send my children to schools in the neighborhood where I live, that happened to be racially and economically isolated, where the children at their schools don't look like them. I believe they are better because of it. I don't believe that there is a better set of teachers. I wish that more people would feel similarly and act similarly.

How do you keep this job from being your whole entire life? I don't compartmentalize. I believe that I am one person. I had my daughters at Lucy Laney. We live in the neighborhood. I don't need any of it off because it's just part of who I am.

Neighbors: Lisa Pawelak shines her light