Leaders in Sync: A Conversation with CA’s Division Principals

All too often, students race through their school experience from one moment to the next; “thinking ahead” means wondering what’s for today’s lunch, maybe anticipating tomorrow’s field trip. As they reach high school, they might even look ahead a week or two to successfully manage the many academic, artistic, and athletic events on their busy schedules.

For Colorado Academy’s leadership, and especially division principals and administrators, adopting the long view is paramount. CA is not composed of silos—each department or grade operating on its own. Rather, CA’s leadership constantly reflects on the question, “What should the complete CA experience look like? From Pre-K through Commencement, from Kindergarten recitals to Upper School concerts, from t-ball to the State Championship, how does CA best serve all of its students and families along a school journey that lasts 14 or 15 years?”

Angie Crabtree, Lower School Principal; Nick Malick, Middle School Principal; and Max Delgado, Upper School Principal confer often about the programs and philosophies that connect their three divisions. There is much that distinguishes a Fourth Grader from a Ninth Grader, as they and all educators know, but the ways that one grows into the other inevitably bring CA’s principals together in thought and action.

In this recent conversation, Crabtree, Malick, and Delgado discuss how they work together and how each looks to the others as they nurture students who are ready to become the best versions of themselves.

CA’s division principals agree that they feel like far more than fellow administrators. 

According to Delgado, “It’s almost as if we’re siblings, because we don’t report to each other; we work together very, very closely.” 

Adds Crabtree, “We love being thought partners—sometimes talking about school, sometimes about what we’re going to do on a school break. It’s fun to spend time with other people who are thinking about school, and also thinking about life.”

These three leaders are mindful of how their own work complements and supports that of their peers. 

According to Crabtree, “In the Lower School, we’re very focused on CA’s mission, and I love how my students can look up to Middle and Upper Schoolers for that. They have role models right on campus: Who can I act like, who can I be like, who’s going to be a positive influence?”

“I really appreciate the work that you do in the Lower School to ground students as they’re entering what effectively is a maelstrom of change in the Middle School,” adds Malick. 

Says Delgado, “One of the great things that we notice about kids who are coming to us from the Middle School is that they know how to study, they’re used to asking for help, and they want to develop adult relationships. I see the work that Nick has put in from a social emotional standpoint, and then blending it with study skills, they’re prepared for high school, which is fantastic.”

CA’s three principals are in widespread agreement about the culture they hope to nurture in each of their divisions.

“We’re not a Lower School in which students walk in straight lines: it’s a busy, noisy hallway,” Crabtree points out. “We love a lot of outdoor play, and we love for kids to work through conflict together. Sometimes we’ll even let them struggle a little bit before we intervene as faculty to help them problem-solve.”

As Malick explains, “Everything we do in the Middle School is about growth. If you make a mistake, we want you to learn how to fix that mistake. We look for our students to start to develop their own skills and habits and tools, so that when they face more challenging problems as they move on, they know how to navigate conflict and they know how to navigate change.”

“The real partnership between our school and our families is that a family’s job is to care for their own like they’re the only child in the universe, where ours is to care for them as part of a larger community,” notes Delgado. “Between those two I think we usually find the right balance at CA.”