It’s not often that the principals of a school win awards in a writing competition.
Yet, this is the case for West Point High School principal Seamus O’Doherty and West Point Middle School principal Maja Marks. The competition, which is comprised of many different school districts in the region, called for a minimum 3 page story of any subject. The stories were shared with the students of each participating district, who voted on their favorite, and why. However, students were not told which story belonged to which district. After a 2-week voting process, the results were in. West Point Community Schools’ story, “A Lonely Block” placed 1st, with “The Uptown Levy” by EHS trailing in 2nd, and “A Disturbance” by NHS placing 3rd. Percentage wise, West Point won by a mile, with 55% of votes. EHS had 15%, and NHS had 13%. The remaining 17% was split among 12 other districts.
When asked about writing their story, the two West Point principals shrugged their shoulders. Principal Marks said, “Seamus and I brainstormed over a week’s worth of lunches and threw whatever came to us on the paper. We edited it to something coherent, and voila.”
In response to the question, “Why did you choose this story?”, many cited A Lonely Block‘s sarcasm & humor. Principal Marks credits this to Principal O’Doherty. When asked about it, O’Doherty said, “It’s what I do best. She did most of the writing. I just made it lighter.”
The stories submitted for the competition will be released publicly after all of the participating writers agree.