Today I interviewed Mrs. Krabitz, the principal at the Homewood Center. Mrs. Krabitz seemed excited to be in the school newspaper. I decided to interview Mrs. Krabitz after Ms. Reis suggested that it would help students learn more about our school. 

Q: What is your favorite thing about being a principal?

A:  Being around middle and high school students. I feel like it is fun and keeps me young and energized. I also enjoy working in a small environment so that I can form close relationships with everyone.

Q:  What is your least favorite thing about being a principal?  What is most challenging?

A:  Well two things, I don’t like it when students do things that make me have to suspend them as I know suspension has a lot of negative consequences but I must still try to keep a safe environment. The second thing that is challenging is trying to remember my big goals as principal because sometimes I have a lot of little things that get in the way.

Q:  What are your big goals as principal?

A:  My first goal is to become a trauma informed school that understands how the brain works when students have been through trauma, and structure the school accordingly. The second goal is to grow the Beyond The 21 program by getting more community partners who will give our kids more internships, jobs, and opportunities. The third is to re-brand Homewood so that the community knows who we really are and don’t have negative or incorrect views about us.

Q:  What would you like to see change at Homewood?

A:  I would like to see staff who take care of themselves and come to work everyday with the positive mindset that is needed to fully support our students and each other. I would like to see students take advantage of all of the things Homewood has to offer.  I want them to see Homewood as an intervention and a place that gives them hope and a plan for their future. The last thing I would like to see change is that I would like for parents to feel like we are their partners and here to support the children and families in any way we can.

Q:  Tell me a little bit about your background

A:  I started in the county as a para-educator and a bus aid. I worked at a k-8 and had to ride the bus everyday to make sure everybody was safe. I got my first teaching job at Homewood; at the time I didn’t even know Homewood existed,  I didn’t know what it was! When I went to school for leadership I actually wanted to be a pupil personnel worker (PPW) so that I could help families in the community and at school. My principal at the time told me that I didn’t need to become a PPW, to be an assistant principal. I listened to her and have been in administration since 2010. I love Homewood and I am always trying to learn new things about Alternative Ed and Special Ed, so that I can continue to help this school grow. 

Q:  What is your personal life like?

A:  I have three kids. They are in 6th grade 3rd grade and pre-school, they keep me very very busy. I am married and we live in Catonsville, I have chocolate lab named Charley and I am very close with my family and friends and I just love hanging out and doing things with them. I also love the Ravens. 

Q:  Can you tell us about your hashtag Homewood family?

A:  Many of the schools in Howard County use twitter to highlight all of the good things about the school and to share information. Many schools have a hashtag that they always us and we wanted Homewood to have one too, so a lot of us were thinking what would describe us and a lot of us felt that we are close like a family environment so we went with Homewood family. 

Q:  Anything else you want to say?

A:  I love that we have a school newspaper now. I hope that in the future if people have ideas like this that they will share them and maybe they will be successful like our newspaper.