A principal bond

This month, many students from Lawrence High School’s graduating class will receive a diploma from the man who has been their principal almost continuously since fourth grade.

Jonathan Dauber ’01, ’04 became the principal of Lawrence Intermediate School in 2006, where he stayed until accepting the position of principal at Lawrence High School in 2011. His journey has mirrored that of this year’s senior class, which will culminate for both of them with the conferring of high school diplomas at the June 25 ceremony at the Sun National Bank Center in Trenton, N.J.

“It’s hard to put into words what this senior class means to me,” Dauber says. “It’s such a personal thing when I see the kids cross the stage to accept their diplomas. I couldn’t ask for anything more as an educator.”

The scenario has created a strong bond between Dauber and this year’s class, but developing relationships is at the heart of his educational philosophy, which was heavily influenced by the character-building lessons of legendary college basketball coach John Wooden and the self-actualization theories of psychologist Abraham Maslow.

“What we do as educators is build relationships with kids and their families,” he says. “We’re a part of these kids’ lives. They come from so many places and are so diverse, and despite all of those differences, we are a close-knit family — a family that exists beyond blood or the houses we live in.”

Dauber, 42, says his workload could easily result in entire days spent behind closed doors, but he’s committed to being visible and accessible. “You have to learn about the students,” he says. “You have to chat with them on a personal level and reveal yourself on a personal level. It takes a lot of energy and time, and you have to really love it or you’ll burn out.”

Dauber graduated from Nottingham High School in 1990. He admits he didn’t really know his high school principal. Whatever barriers that exist between administrators, faculty and students in his school now, Dauber wants to knock them down. At last year’s graduation ceremony, Dauber hopped off the stage in the middle of his speech and invited all the students to swarm him while he snapped a selfie. He posted the photo on his Twitter account during the ceremony.

#LHSGraduation2014 Here we are. First ever grad selfie during ceremony. Best of luck to all! Keep in touch. pic.twitter.com/6jn09C2ql4

— Jon Dauber (@JonDauber) June 19, 2014

“Culture comes from the very top, and culture will change as leadership changes, particularly at the high school level,” he says. “It’s not in your words. It’s how you live it; you have to live it. It’s not about preaching. It’s not about spouting off at faculty meetings. It’s about creating an atmosphere where kids are held accountable but ultimately know we care about them. When others see you acting in that capacity, it feeds them.”

Dauber’s approachable style and inspiring example have helped him move quickly up the ladder. In the fall, he will become West Windsor-Plainsboro North’s principal, joining one of New Jersey’s top-achieving districts. In response to the announcement, Lawrence students sent him a message congratulating him and thanking him for being “much more than the best principal we could ask for.”

“He may never know just how much we appreciate his efforts, but we all know what he has meant to this school and its students,” they wrote.

Education may be in Dauber’s genes — both his mother and father were educators — but he didn’t immediately join the field after graduating from the University of Connecticut in 1994 with a bachelor’s in sociology and psychology. He worked for four years as an officer in the Mercer County Sheriff’s Department, where the Hamilton native had his eyes opened beyond the cushy suburban life he was accustomed to.

He recalls entering homes while exercising warrants and seeing bare cupboards in bug-ridden apartments. On one assignment, he witnessed children eating yesterday’s table scraps out of a garbage can in their kitchen. “You see where people are in life,” he says. “It gave me perspective about how to work with people and learn from them.”

Starting in 1997, Dauber would clock out of his day job in the Sheriff’s Department and travel to nearby Rider University to take night classes. He liked his job in law enforcement — he had a notion of becoming a criminal psychologist — but the classes were in the entirely different field of education.

Dauber thought a teaching certificate might buy him some security should his sheriff’s job ever go awry. To earn his certificate, he was required to student teach, but when the Sheriff’s Department denied his request for a leave of absence, Dauber had to make a decision: commit to law enforcement or to education?

“It was scary,” he says, recalling the uneven job prospect for teachers, the lower salary, the unpaid student loans from his undergraduate education. “But it was an easy decision.”

Dauber quit his job and became a student teacher. Soon after, he landed jobs teaching social studies in Trenton and then in nearby Ewing, where, in addition to teaching, he first glimpsed the possibilities of an administrative career.

He returned to Rider to earn two master’s degrees in education, one in general educational leadership and administration and the other in educational, instructional and curriculum supervision. He spent a total of eight years studying at night and forming relationships with faculty who influenced his path forward. "Studying at Rider was very beneficial in helping me move forward in my career,” Dauber says. He completed his doctoral studies at Rutgers University in 2013 by writing a dissertation on how and why parents make decisions on choosing schools, particularly between public and private options.

Despite focusing his research on the choices made by parents, Dauber’s career centers on students. They make the hard work and the time away from his own two small children (ages 5 and 3) worthwhile. Because of the students, he says, he has a career and a calling and not just a job.

No matter where they go after high school, Dauber wants his students to define success for themselves and avoid comparing their lives to others. “People can be high achievers and have all the material things they want and still be miserable,” he says. “I want students to know for themselves what it means to be successful because that’s the lens that will determine if they’re happy. That’s how they’ll find peace with who they are and be good people as they move through life.”

For most of the past decade, Dauber and the class of 2015 have moved through life together. Come graduation, that phase ends and a new one begins for both the students and their principal.