Beloved Poland educator retiring after 30 years

By JORDYN GRZELEWSKI

jgrzelewski@vindy.com

POLAND

Ask the people closest to McKinley Elementary Principal Ed Kempers about him, and they’ll tell you the same thing. Kids trust him. He makes them feel safe. And he always has their best interests at heart.

“They knew that when they were in his building, no matter what age they were, they were safe. They were liked. Actually, more than liked – they were loved,” said Poland Middle School social-studies teacher Thad Wright, who worked with Kempers for 28 years.

That’s almost the entirety of Kempers’ career, which began September 1986 and now is ending with his retirement.

Kempers started as a seventh-grade math teacher. After eight years, then-Superintendent Dr. Robert Zorn asked Kempers to take over as principal of Dobbins Elementary, a job he did for two years.

Next came what Kempers describes as the most-rewarding chapter in his career: He became principal of the newly reopened Union Elementary.

“It was 1996, and that school had been closed for 11 years. It was a new staff. The school was new to all of the kids. I was the new principal,” he said. “I was there for six years, and it was like one big family because we all started together.”

From there, Kempers moved to the role he now is leaving: principal at McKinley, the district’s fifth- and sixth-grade school. There, he worked closely with Poland Middle School Principal Mark Covell.

“I fondly call him the ‘Mr. Rogers of Poland schools’ because of his constant pleasant demeanor,” said Covell. “I think students saw not just a person who runs their school – he was fatherly, a fatherly figure who made them feel safe, and they just knew that Mr. Kempers was going to take care of them.”

Covell’s words echo those of Union Elementary Principal Mike Masucci. Although they led different buildings, the two would talk on the phone daily to compare notes.

“I think first and foremost is trust,” said Masucci of what kids saw in Kempers. “The trust that Mr. Kempers would take care of them.”

That trust undoubtedly stems from Kempers’ approach to his job, which was to listen to students.

“Even though they are young people, they deserve to be listened to,” he said. “You just can’t think of kids in general and lump them all together. Every one of them is an individual that needs to be treated like an individual, with respect. I learned that a lot of times what they have to say is extremely important.”

As for highlights from the last 30 years, Kempers brought up a memorable period when a Japanese child, Sean Hiramatsu, was sent by his parents to live in Poland after a 2011 earthquake, tsunami and ensuing nuclear accident devastated parts of the country. Sean lived with the Kempers family for a year.

Kempers also recalled being asked to be the Class of 2009’s commencement speaker.

“I thought it was amazing that a group of students who were now seniors asked their principal from fifth- and sixth-grade to be the speaker,” he said. “I don’t like individual accomplishments or anything like that, but that was probably the biggest honor in my career.”

Wright remembered a tactic that Kempers used as principal.

“When a student would be called down to the office for something he or she may have done, he would always listen to all of the students that were involved, independently. Then he would get them together in the conference room and basically tell them, ‘Talk it over and work it out,’” Wright said. “Then he’d step out of the conference room and come back five minutes later. He’d come back and they’d be friends. That would happen time and time and time again.”

As for what he sought to impart to students, Kempers referred back to some often-repeated advice.

“Here are things that I said many, many, many times every single year: ‘Accept the differences among us. Respect yourself and others.’ And I always told them, ‘If you find yourself not doing your best, you just start doing your best right then.’”

He and his wife, Debbie, plan to remain in Poland. They have two daughters, Ellie and Mackenzie, still in school here.

Kempers is done at the school now. He had planned to quietly say a few goodbyes his last day, but it ended up being a snow day – which was OK.

“That’s how Ed wanted to go,” said Masucci. “He wanted no hoopla. He didn’t want a party. He wanted to walk out the door as if he was coming in the next day.”