Lankenau's can-do principal to be honored

During her five years as principal at Lankenau Environmental Science Magnet High School, Karen Dean has stressed academics and the importance of going to college.

The veteran administrator also has encouraged staff and students to build partnerships with groups and businesses in the school's Upper Roxborough neighborhood and beyond.

Those relationships and Dean's ability to delegate tasks paid dividends after vandals destroyed parts of the school's nearly 17-acre campus in February, including students' gardens.

Dean's can-do personality and her focus on nurturing the small school perched on a hill at the city's edge were among the reasons she is one of seven district principals who will be honored Tuesday at the Prince Music Theater.

She is a 2016 winner of the Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Foundation's Distinguished Principal Award, which will bring a $20,000 stipend to her school.

The other recipients are Stacey Burnley, Edwin M. Stanton School; Connie Carnivale, H.A. Brown Academics Plus Elementary School; Toni Damon, Murrell Dobbins Career and Technical Education High School; Brianna Dunn, Laura W. Waring Elementary School; Carolyn Allen-Glass, Thomas G. Morton Elementary School; and James Williams, Kensington Health Sciences Academy.

Winners were chosen by the district in consultation with Lindback trustees.

"There's a firm belief in the importance of excellence in education in the public schools," said David E. Loder, a lawyer at Duane Morris who is a foundation trustee.

Amid news of problems and funding shortages in city schools, he said, the foundation believes it is critical "to bring attention to the many, many shining lights in the district."

Loder said the principals' award honors those "who have provided extraordinary leadership under very dire circumstances."

When Dean, 57, learned of her selection for the Lindback award, her initial reaction was: "Wow! I see it more that our school won this recognition."

Dean plans to use the funds to install an outdoor fitness trail and upgrade Lankenau's technology.

The school, with 300 students and a staff of 13 full-time teachers, has been honored before during Dean's tenure.

For the last two years, the state education department recognized Lankenau for its academic improvements among schools that receive federal funds for low-income students.

"We have work to do," Dean said. "But it sure is nice that the state makes recognition that my students are on point and the progress is steady."

The Lindback Award is something for the whole school to celebrate.

Daja Williams, 18, a senior from Northeast Philadelphia, was especially thrilled because she helped nominate Dean.

In her letter, Williams said, she stressed Dean's leadership skills, her open-door policy, and her concern for students.

"She takes care of us as if we were her own," said Williams, who plans to study business at Lincoln or Millersville University. "She makes sure we have the proper resources and materials to succeed and get to college. She wants everyone to go to college, and she bashes that inside our heads," Williams added with a laugh.

"So much of why [Dean] is such a great administrator is her personality," said Meredith Joseph, who has taught English at Lankenau since 1999.

She said Dean has an unusual ability to defuse situations and avoid conflict. "She has the right words at the right moment," Joseph said. "And she's very honest."

A graduate of Girls High, Dean earned her teaching degree from Northeastern University in Boston.

Philadelphia had a hiring freeze the year Dean graduated, so she took a teaching job in Dallas. She came back to Philadelphia in 1988 and joined the staff of A.K. McClure Elementary School. During the 12 years she spent at that school in Hunting Park, Dean taught several grades, and served as a reading specialist, program support teacher, and administrative assistant.

"I wore a lot of hats there," she recalled.

After a stint as assistant principal at C.W. Henry School in West Mount Airy, she was principal of A.B. Day School in East Germantown for eight years.

When an assistant superintendent told Dean the principal's post was available at Lankenau in 2011, she applied.

"I always wanted to work in a high school, and what a great place to be," Dean said.

She recalls her early days at Lankenau as a time when the school was trying to find its identity.

"We're an environmental school, and my first two years there was a lot of talk about: 'What does that mean?' 'What do we look like?' "

She said the school developed partnerships to underscore its environmental focus, including with the city's Water Department, the Delaware Valley Green Building Council, and the neighboring Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education.

In the last few years, Lankenau has coped with funding cuts that led to it losing its assistant principal, several teachers, and one of the two school police officers. But the close-knit, stable staff worked together to try to make up for the losses.

Joseph credits Dean for setting the tone. She calls her a "teachers' principal" because she encourages staff - and students - to come up with ideas.

"She'll let you run with it," Joseph said. "She checks in on you, but she's not a micromanager."

That approach became critical when Lankenau faced its greatest challenge in memory.

Students and staff returned the Tuesday after Presidents' Day to find that vandals had driven trucks over the property.

"And when we came back Wednesday, we saw that they had come back - to finish it off," Dean said.

Vegetable gardens. Flower beds. The compost area. The rain garden. Everything was flattened.

Naseem Kates, 17, a senior in the Botany Club who had worked on the gardens, summed it up in one word: "Devastated."

No one has been apprehended.

With Dean's blessing, students and staff spread the news through social media and wrote letters to news organizations.

As word got out, help came from the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, Roxborough Memorial Hospital, and others. Contractors donated their services. Strangers wrote checks. Neighbors, students, alumni, and staff pitched in one Saturday to begin restoring the property.

"We have been blessed because of the outpouring of support, and interest in our school has been phenomenal," Dean said.

With donated funds and labor, Lankenau plans to install fencing around the property. The school also will install surveillance cameras.

On a recent windy morning, members of the Botany Club were trying to figure out the placement for the new compost area, and Dean stopped by to take a look.

She pointed to where raised beds would be built and flower beds planted.

"We're making a comeback," Dean said. "And it's going to be bigger and better."

martha.woodall@phillynews.com215-854-2789@marwooda