This piece is the second in a feature series for National Assistant Principals Week. Read the rest here.
A soft stream of smoke comes wafting out of the two sizzling pans on the stove—one with a delicious, tender beef bourguignon, and in another, a more plain, kid-friendly spaghetti—past assistant principal Eric Sweeney and into the living room, where his two kids are roleplaying. The ringleader is the five-year-old daughter, who is cosplaying as Mimi the cat on all fours, and beside her, Sweeney’s three-year-old son is following her lead as Cornbread the cat.
“That is my least favorite game,” Sweeney said. “One day, when she asked if I enjoyed playing Mimi and Cornbread, which is usually just me doing whatever she asked me to do and saying, ‘Mimi, go outside. Mimi, eat this treat,’ and I told her it was not my favorite game in the world to play, she started to cry, and I felt like a really bad human being, so I said, ‘No, no, I love Mimi and Cornbread. It’s my favorite game to play.’”
Although Mimi and Cornbread isn’t Sweeney’s favorite game to get roped into, he still makes sure to comply with their antics. He particularly likes spending time outdoors with his son, who plays soccer, and doing arts and crafts with his daughter.
“Sometimes playing just means that I lay on the floor, and they throw things at me, but we play,” Sweeney said. “I make sure that I have time to sit and talk with my wife. That’s really important.”
Sweeney said he has also found a family within the administrative team.
“Honestly, we have meetings sometimes that just turn into laughing and venting about our day,” Sweeney said. “I think those are my sweetest memories. Another was when Ms. High and her husband made us all a bunch of barbecue last year, and we just sat and talked and laughed.”
Outside of functioning as an interconnected family, the administrative team handles all of the systems weaving throughout the school, ensuring they run smoothly for students, teachers, and staff.
“We want teachers to do what they’re best at, which is teach, and we’re really lucky to be at Clements because every teacher really loves their content and is really motivated and passionate about what they do,” Sweeney said. “It often involves putting out a lot of fires and that takes a lot of time. Even the radio, we want to clear that for teachers.”
Sweeney had his first real taste of education after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. After the disaster left much of New Orleans wrecked, he began volunteering and teaching kids in place of the teachers.
“It felt fulfilling to me,” Sweeney said. “It still does. So I became a teacher, and I was going to be a teacher for life. Then, there was a transition of leadership, and in came a principal who destroyed our school.”
Sweeney first moved into an administrative role after seeing how quickly systems came apart in a less ideal school without responsible and stable authority figures, and experiencing firsthand the burden that fell to the teachers following the collapse of leadership.
“It made teaching much harder,” Sweeney said. “We went from having no teachers leave to having 60% of our teachers leave. And I saw the impact that that had on kids and families.”
The intrinsic desire to do good stayed with Sweeney all throughout. Even now, his motivations on a smaller scale are still shaped by his past experiences.
“The bigger task is something that’s exciting to me,” Sweeney said. “I know that if I can complete it, it’ll make a difference. Then, the smaller tasks I break down from there. Like, if I can check that off, I know I’m going to meet that bigger goal. It really does make a difference. Sometimes, when you’re not doing it that way, it can feel like every day is monotonous and that I’m not really getting anything done.”
Sweeney also enjoys what he dubs his “morning meetings” with himself and a nice cup of coffee to monitor his progress and track his tasks for the week.
“I have an idea of what my day should look like at the beginning of the day,” Sweeney said. “I look and say, ‘This is what I’m going to do, this is what I’ve calendared out,’ and it is more often than not that it gets upended by things that come during the day, whether that be a behavior issue or an emergency. Usually, by the end of the day, I look back and shake my head and say, ‘I accomplished nothing that I was supposed to.’”
For Sweeney, much of his job as an administrator is working behind the scenes and keeping the spotlight on the teacher.
“I can do a lot of things to keep things running during the day, but at the end of the day, it may look as if I’ve done absolutely nothing,” Sweeney said. “And that’s kind of how we exist. So it’s a bond between us administrators and it’s nice to be able to look and just laugh. And we really, we’ve had some great, great times as an administrative team.”
Gratitude notes from those who know Sweeney best:
Principal Tara Baker: “He is so passionate about what’s ethically right and moral character, and he does a great job at helping students grow into good human beings through a restorative conference. He’s great at conflict resolution. If there’s a conflict between two students, or even student and teacher, he does a tremendous job at being that mediator between the two, and also giving little bits of just life advice to students.
He’s also very energetic in a fun way. He’s a lot like me in a sense that we’re okay with making fun of ourselves if it helps the campus culture. He does a great job at just being light in people’s day, which I think is important.”
Administrative assistant Jana Hayes:
“The Energizer Bunny has nothing on that man. He is always at a 10. No matter what is going on situation-wise, he makes sure to check on me, to back me up with whatever. If I’m having to deal with a student who’s having a tough time, he’s very quick to step in. If I have a situation with the parking, somebody’s upset with me, he’s very quick to take that over and take that off my plate.
Mr. Sweeney has special ed, for a background, and as a mother of a special ed teacher, everything he does means a lot to me. He makes sure every staff member’s taken care of. If I have a question, all I have to do is ask and he has an answer for me and we work together to solve all kinds of problems, including parking, which I know for a lot of people has been quite the headache, but he has helped me figure all the hiccups that we’ve had to deal with.
He knows I love licorice and when he sees my licorice bag out, he comes by and he’s like, ‘Oh no, what’s wrong?’ Because typically when I’m eating my licorice, I’m a little stressed out. So he’ll come and he’s like, ‘Are you okay?’ Like, yeah, I’m okay. Just eating my licorice. It helps me work it out. And it’s funny because they all know that when licorice is out, that, okay, you can check in, but just give her some space.”
Associate Principal Matthew Warren: “He’s a very driven individual that puts his family first and foremost and he shows that in his work. He truly cares about the people around him, not that he’s a people pleaser, but that he wants to be professional at all times and make sure that those that rely on him feel supported and heard and validated, and so he truly is a go-getter. He’s a very hard worker and I’m very fortunate to be able to work with him every day.”
I think it’s hilarious that people mistake us for each other. It’s funny and there’s no remorse, zero hard feelings. We play into it. It’s fun. I don’t mind being recognized as him. We both have the same skin tone, the same hair color. We’re both kind of the same height. There’s no issue, but based off CTV, people know who is the faster between the two of us and so that’s all that matters.
Him and I have a very good working relationship and everybody needs people. You can’t do life alone. Just being able to vent with him and just kind of express frustrations and know that he hears you, he’ll empathize with you, but also having it the other way around — he can vent his frustrations and we can work together.”
Resource teacher Carol Harris: “He is fun. He appreciates his team. He’s always checking on the staff members to make sure that we’re good. Mr. Sweeney is an all hands on deck type of person, so if there’s something going on in a department, he is there to assist you and help you resolve the problem.”
Counselor Sha’Quaella Levy: “Mr. Sweeney knows everything about the campus and the teachers from a personal experience. I think that is what makes him an amazing principal here at Clements because he knows firsthand and has walked in the same shoes the students have. When he approaches a student, he has that special connection with them. So I love to see him interact with students.
Him and I are the best collaboration on this campus because he has a way of not making it feel like work. He has a great personality and he approaches things with ease, being empathetic. He looks at students. He doesn’t just see them as another number. He wants to know their personal story, their background. So it’s always a pleasure to work with him because I know he truly cares.
I think he deserves all the appreciation. Sometimes he has to be in about five places at one time and he makes it all happen somehow. I’ve never seen him have a bad day. He comes here with a smile on his face and always willing to help anyone from the janitors all the way up to other APs, and he’s there to help out students and staff. So I think he’s an exceptional assistant principal and he deserves all the gratitude.”
