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01/10/2018 07:30 AMThe Lewin G. Joel School in Clinton can now boast of having a winner of the Connecticut Association of Schools (CAS) Assistant Principal of the Year award. On Dec. 18, 2017, the CAS recognized Joel’s Joe Macrino as a 2018 winner.
“It was an amazing feeling,” Joe says of learning he had been named a winner. “What meant the most to me is it represents the hard work we’re doing in Clinton...As a school we’ve really worked hard to not only provide strong academic programming but strong emotional and social skills as well.”
As a result of winning the award from the CAS,
Joe, who has worked for four years at Joel, which serves students from pre-kindergarten to grade 3. He will be honored by the National Association of Elementary School Principals at Orlando in the summer, an event Joe says he is looking forward to attending.
Joe grew up in New London, graduated from Fordham University, and began a career in television production in New York. His career in television allowed him the opportunity to work on such famous shows as Saturday Night Live and for MTV.
One notable memory probably gains him more credibility from his student’s parents than the students themselves: the time he was able to play chess with hip-hop group the Wu-Tang Clan. The game came about during some downtime in between shoots for a show on which the group was appearing.
“I got to see them and what they’re like behind the scenes. It was pretty cool,” Joe says, noting, “You get over being star struck pretty quickly.”
Despite the excitement of his time in New York, something unexpected happened.
“I started getting homesick,” Joe says.
Looking for something different, he eventually moved home and returned to school to get a master’s degree in education—though it wasn’t an easy decision.
“I had to slowly wean myself off of New York,” Joe says.
During the week, he completed his class work and internship; on the weekends, he performed in a band, singing and playing the banjo.
Joe says part of what attracted him to the education field is that “teaching was the one job where I can go to bed knowing I made a kid’s life better...For some kids, school is the best six hours they have.”
Joe does see some similarities between his television and music and his education careers. While he admits at first blush the it may “seem like two different worlds,” Joe says that both fields deal with a “very critical audience,” so that he must always be on top of his game while working.
Joe was teaching in Waterford, when some parents told him of an opening in the Clinton school system.
“I walked into the interview and knew these were my people,” Joe says.
Even during the interview process, he thought to himself, “These people know what they’re doing.”
Joe, whose father also was a teacher for many years, says that teaching has been in his blood, and calls early childhood education “a passion.”
For Joe, Clinton remains “a special place”—”It has this classic American small-town feel.”
In his spare time, Joe say he enjoys playing music, and calls himself “an avid reader.”
“I enjoy spending as much time with my family as possible,” Joe says (Joe and his wife Sarah have a son named Elvis and a daughter named Coral).
It turns out there’s another connection between the entertainment business and teaching: Losing the audience is never easy.
“Seeing the kids go after they graduate 3rd grade” is the hardest part of teaching, he says. “I’m spending as much time with them as with my kids.”