By Amerie Morrison, Dyana Gonzalez, Emily Deolmo, and Yasmine Elbeblawy
Fasten your leashes bulldogs, it’s the dawn of the Breeding era. Uniforms and an increase in our graduation rates are top priorities on our new principal’s agenda.
We sat down with our Head Bulldog to get the low on his plans for Braddock and what it’s like to be a first-time high school principal. While some of our former W.R. Tigers may remember Breeding from their middle school days, the rest of Braddock is still curious about who he is and what vision he has in mind for the Bulldog Nation. His expectations for everyone here at Braddock are towering, they include the students doing “the best that they possibly can do and see the graduation rate increase above 90%.” When asked about his leadership style, Breeding says “to have an effective leadership you need to have an open mind, be able to listen, and maintain constant communication.” (Breeding 2020?)
True words from an extremely approachable individual. During our interview, Breeding was easy to talk to and made us feel at ease, which is no small feat, while sitting in his office at his board table. That’s the good news.
On a more serious note, Principal Breeding has zero tolerance on uniform violations and lack of school spirit. When asked about having spirit shirts included in our uniform policy, Breeding was all business. “I’m a firm believer in school spirit however because we are a uniform school, obviously I expect uniforms to be worn Monday through Thursday spirits, obviously on Friday. And I expect all of our students to wear spirit shirts because it’s that spirit in our school that really promotes what we are and who we are and our identity as bulldogs…”
We asked former W.R. Tiger and sophomore Carolyna Mesquida what her opinion was of Breeding’s uniform policy and she said, “He was a good principal but he didn’t play when it came to uniforms.”
Breeding believes we should be able to expand school spirit beyond Fridays. Our new leader wants to see more participation at events and would like the upperclassman to take charge of this initiative. Activities Director Mrs. Nelly Odio says she has already noticed a huge difference. “He will say no to nothing. Even in the pep rallies or when we were out there doing the wave and everything. He just gets involved because he wants all the kids to get involved and bring back a lot of the spirit that for many reasons had sort of gone down. He really wants to change that.” Odio also mentioned Breeding connects well with the students, especially since a lot of them had him as a principal in middle school.
So here’s our progress report on our new principal: C- for bringing a middle school uniform policy to our dawg pound and A+ for your refreshing open door policy and constant presence within our student body. We look forward to experiencing the reign of the Breeding Era.
BREEDING’S FAV’S
The Watchdog 