The MCTS Experience

S1 E6.1: Mr. Lugo

March 12, 2019 Mercer County Technical Schools Season 1 Episode 17
The MCTS Experience
S1 E6.1: Mr. Lugo
Show Notes Transcript

We say goodbye to Mr. Lugo and hear his memories/thoughts about his time here at MCTS. Take a listen!

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Speaker 1:

And now it's time for the MCTs experience

Speaker 2:

episode. Welcome.

Speaker 1:

Bittersweet mini episode. The MCTs experience. I'm happy, happy occasions, but, but uh, sad to say goodbye to this guy. Uh, the Great David Lugo, our supervisor at the SAYPAC sentence, money he wanting, he is money in the bank and in your pocket. Uh, Mr[inaudible], thank you very much. Appreciate it. Thanks for joining us for the podcast. It's my pleasure. Um, we are going to miss you a, that goes without saying. You're going to, you're in a position where, you know, a lot of times you have to deal with discipline things and stuff like that. And, and we'll tell the audience who for, oh, sorry. Please go right ahead. Oh, by Gosh, listen, Dave, such a big part of the family. Like a lot of times we have people come in and do a mini episode. Yeah. You know, we, we always do the intro, but Dave's, so part of who we are, you know, Dave's, the assistant principal you're at, at, uh, at Mercer County Technical School, Saypac Center, often called a supervisor and he does, you do supervise a lot of things. But, and in addition to, uh, really helping out with the student interactions and with staff and the gusseting that all the behind the scenes lift the curtain check you out. You also were really an accomplished teacher within the district. And when the HSA program started, you were on a ground floor of that and that birth, so many kids careers opportunities for us as a district. I mean, you really were integral. There's three of you and you'll get into all this, I'm not stealing your thunder, but basically you, you know, you're the, you're the supervisor, vice principal here at Mercer County Technical School Syep at center and you know, we're glad to have here. Oh, that I was going to say with sometimes he's, it has to be in the position of, of disciplining students and yet somehow still beloved eat even by the very students who he's had to reprimand or deal with, they all still, oh, they waive the f logo, flag high. And then there was still a trick that I'm still trying to uncover how that works. Well that's, you're gifted. You got to give gift of Gab. You care about kids, you care about people. And when people sense that, uh, that's, that's the underlining tone that you, you've, you've imparted into the district and it will be a legacy. The Dave Lugo legacy will be strong and we're excited to connect and reconnect. But let's get into the, let's get in a time machine. You want to get this time? She go in the way far back machine. Way, way back machine. Let's go way, way back machine. Tell us a little bit. Gotcha.

Speaker 3:

Okay. Yeah, sure. So I came to Mercer. Can I technical schools? It was 2010. Was that your first position? No, no, I was teaching in Pennsylvania. What were you teaching? I was teaching at the uh, charter school over in Allentown, pa. Oh Great. Was there for about a year. And um, you know, I grew up up in Allentown[inaudible] for a number of years and having gone to temple, I wanted to come back to the city and be close to the, to the Philadelphia area, a lot of friends and family in this area. And at that point I started to look far and wide for a interesting position in social studies. And Lo and behold, I Lucio Jones, the principal at the time at Asim Pink, she calls me and asks me to come in for an interview. And I didn't know much about the technical school world that was always in a comprehensive or a charter school and whatever the case is. But she brought me in and had that interview was very gracious and wonderful interview. And at the end, you know, I got a call from her after I left, asked me to come back and offer me the position and I was like, fantastic. You know, it's social studies teacher, but we're starting a new academy. Oh boy. So you know, it's funny how things just fall into place because when I started at a charter school in Pennsylvania, that was also the inception year, the first year that they were starting it and from the ground up, I was there for that year and kind of saw the bumps in the road that come with starting a school. So I said, okay, I guess let's do it again. So I'm imagining knowing what you already know, living through it, they sense that in the interview and they experience is everything and in addition to talent and additional passion, but if you've lived through something, it can only make you faster, stronger, better the second time around. And they know that you had helped the rocket lift off the launchpad at this other school. Right? So here we were at MCTs, you know, share time forever share time since the 70s, you know, that's our bread and butter nut and bolt votech Jean Jackets and mullets is our deal. And here we are treading into an academy of very high level academy. Right? Then that was the thing where, you know, we discussed how there was so much planning for four years. This academy was going to pave the way for the district and, and incorporate this, this academic piece where, um, the students are gonna come in learning a trade, but in the health sciences. So, you know, we wanted to kind of gear gear the students into this world of being a medical doctor, a nurse, whatever the case is built from the ground floor. So that was the exciting part. And at that point there were, there were three of us that started who was, who was Rachel Hendrickson. Nice. Samantha Ash. Yes. Ronnie Tarci shoe. He was, he was, he was a yep. And it was Baldino with John Baldino was therefore for PE. And I think that was it because it, I taught social studies and Spanish and Rachel English. Oh my gosh. Double Math math. And John Baldino was the, is a PA. How many kids in the first, in the first we started out with about 20 some odd students. So it was my, you know, at the same time there was a lot of apprehension because we're asking kids to take a chance on us cause you know, come here, this is the first time we're doing this. Leave Hightstown leave Trenton. You exactly. Oh my gosh. And give us a shot. So when we started with that and, and had a lot of parents coming in and we had to almost put the parents eat, but you know, put them through that this was going to benefit their kids. And Lo and behold, it does. Where now we have kids. I have some of my former students at Duke, uh, um, God, Carnegie Mellon case, Western. I mean there are at some incredible institutions, but again, going on that journey from the ground floor to see what that academy has become has obviously catapulted this other academies that we have from stem to a culinary academy into what they are today. So, so the HSA plane is lifting off the runway. Like I want everybody to envision the Howard Hughes plane, if you've ever seen, had a honey kind of discovery, childless massive laborious thing like bra and the wings are teetering and the plane's lifted off. Take us a high moment, you remember from the early days and give us a dark, maybe a dark time, highs and lows. So I remember it stands out to me. So we had the kids. Um, I was doing something on in history class. I think it has to do with the civil war and we were doing a timeline and I said, I will always wanted to have a massive piece of paper that can span the length of a hallway with all the timelines of the events that a lot happen. Sounds healthier. So it was like, I'm, how am I going to do this? So we had this massive, I mean, huge piece of paper. All the kids I was able to fit all, it was a small closet at the time, like the 20 kids on to this piece of paper. And they were all, they all had a time period and they had to draw, illustrate, uh, you know, and discuss what they were, what they were putting onto the, onto their awesome. Then we put it, we displayed it on the hallway and it was just a cool experience because it felt like one of these massive banners that you would see on the Macy's day parade, just huge. And I at that moment was so I just realize how blessed I was to be able to give and to be given the creativity and the, and the freedom to do what I wanted to do with incredible. And it was Henri on the kids loved it. I mean they really, they took to it and they, they, they enjoyed that class because I pushed them in the creative side and I'm one of them to, to go through the bumps of it all. But you know, I was afforded that opportunity to do that because of administration that we had and they knew that we had to get the kids really hooked and you know, keeping them engaged was the most helpful thing for me. Right. Take, take me into the day when maybe the robot was out on the open seas. The winds picked up and the waves started breaking over the bow and old Dave Lugo was drinking seawater. Oh God. So there's a number of those. Okay. So there's a number of those four. There was one class in particular that always begged me. This is an asks. I'm thinking, here we go. Let's go outside. I want to have class, I want to be outside, I want to be outside. Let's, let's do this. We still do go. Begrudgingly. I was like, I knew what this is going to do because nature, what a beast. It's a beast. So we're, we go into these massive trees and there's these, um, has some of the kids take their chairs and there's a bench out there. And so we sat there two minutes in and that's pushing it to me within two minutes. A bunch of the girls, there's a bug on me. There's, yeah, crash, what is this then a kids Roman away, I can't do that. And how the wind look, I did look at this car going by and they were just so distracted. That was a learning point. I came in and I had a smile on my face and some of the kids had stuff on them and like there's a leaf on me and they just didn't appreciate the nature that was going on. And, and I looked at them, I said, let's do it again tomorrow. And he said, absolutely not. So while, you know, realistically the day was kind of wasted, but it was a learning experience for all of us in Nice. And they never wanted to go back outside because they couldn't sit in the chairs with all the nature around it. But that was, that was a funny

Speaker 1:

variance here. You take it, you roll the dice, you move your mice, you, you'd take a chance and you, uh, a crash and burn and maybe you never had to deal with them asking to go outside again. They never asked to go back. That's the best part is, is smash cut six years later it kids like, it's beautiful. Let's go inside. Nope, we're not going outside the network. We've got a task to do and we're going to stay to it. And exactly. I love it. It's very nice. So, and you became the supervisor of Saypac or our assistant who's bull three years ago. Four years ago.

Speaker 3:

Three years. Just over three years ago. Okay. So three years ago, and I remember at ASCE and pink, um, this Heister pew, she came up to me, she said, Dave, you would be a rock star supervisor. And I never thought that it would, I, you know, the journey that I was on to be a teacher, I want it to be the best that I, that I was at being a teacher. I never thought that administration would be the path that I would, I would be drawn towards these, drawn toward and then do well in. And she's kind of put that in my ear and I started to think about it. Let's give it a try.

Speaker 1:

Well, and, and you know, that's one a day in his biggest strengths, Dina's, uh, you know, I used to you for everybody listening is our assistant superintendent and her ability to see that in people inspires people and obviously played a part in who you were.

Speaker 3:

And it was really neat because she came in, she came in one time to my financial lit class. And one of the coolest parts of that you have that class was the shark tank presentation. Yeah. And the, the students would have to kind of recreate, um, the shark tank model. We had the music going, they came up with their own business plans, all that fun stuff. And Dina was in there one point. She was laughing too. I seen the kids in their presentations and kind of the questions that we're throwing at them in that shark tank model and you know, she saw what I was capable of doing in the classroom and then she thought that it would be a good fit over at Saypac to be a supervisor here. And

Speaker 1:

so hearing that when you envisioned of, you know, coming to be a supervisor and we're one family, one district, three buildings there, but there is a certain flavor of ice cream from an Hsa. Do a stem student do a culinary art student to a share time, a nuts and bolts, blue collar or white collar program. There are, we're all one family and we've integrated really well, especially with stem coming here. It's really immersed all of us together and smashed us together in a very healthy, uplifting way. What did you envision it that it was going to be like for you when you came to experience share time? Guys and girls?

Speaker 3:

You know, you must have had a couple of pullout kids. I had a few pool, I had a few pullout kids. Yes. Yeah. And to me, any student that I had, I enjoyed having in class because it didn't matter to me where they came from and it was always a blast to have anybody in class. So what I found the most challenging was for me to kind of wrap my head around, well now as a supervisor instead of the classroom being my domain, the entire campus is my domain. And that incorporates not just the culinary program that was here at the time, but all the share time programs, BMT, cosmetology, and I needed to go and make sure I understood those programs for the best of my ability to help them out. So I came into it with an open mind is the best answer that I can get for them. And it worked out best cause I don't want to come in with the,

Speaker 1:

yeah, yeah. And how, how can you tell me what a certain flavor of food or ice cream or I is. Go back to the food[inaudible] I worked at in there. You see how it got it in there? You brought it all around. You were like a master did come on to Saypac campus. Did you quickly find out about baking, dining and culinary arts? Is we like culinary arts? Oh he did. It was, there's the legendary, what did they call it? The SAYPAC 15[inaudible] 15 so pick 15 but you know what the side effects are seeing never manifested because I went to the gym[inaudible] I'm like I got to go to the gym cause this is going to kill me. We should be hating yet doesn't. So what was your favorite item in the floors? Bakery. It's impossible task to answer that question. Come on. She, she knows. Yes, you can say it. Say it. And I'll also chip cookies. Why not? What about, what about those like Pepperoni bread with, oh, did you ever feel that I ever inside they were on my desk. I never asked for them. That says there. Then let's send simic would would torture, like joke around torture you. They would, they would, uh, put the Catholic kids, put stuff all over your desk,

Speaker 3:

lance and make him, he made it his mission to make sure that I did gain that dad

Speaker 1:

to make sure I got that far off that 15 pounds. Yeah. And I fought it off. You did. You did a heck of a job because I succumbed a long time ago. I used to be a US felt Dave Nash and then dad bought, took over. He's still look fantastic. Don't be silly. I'm going to give you 10 of my lbs to take with you when you leave Mr Ludina. Absolutely. It's a deal. I've got the SOPAC 15. Um, it's a long, it's a beautiful legacy. Dave. What Lugo's woven into the MCTs tapestry. Absolutely. We're going to, we're going to start calling it the logo 15 now. We're not even the guy. He never got it all back. I don't know. We were talking about this is, I agree. You look fantastic. Um, Mr Lugo, we're really gonna miss you. We are very happy for you. Uh, but, uh, our losses is Philly's game. And, uh,

Speaker 3:

I guess a few parting words, you know, it's, it has been quite frankly the most incredible adventure of my career. And I've said this to everybody that I worked with that it's the people that make this district what it is, how successful the students are is because of how talented the staff are. And it made my job that much more fruitful, that much more substantive because I worked with just the best group of people and, and quite frankly, I cannot thank you guys enough for all that you've done for me. You know, the, all the, the memories of the laughter, the, you know, the food that my office being,

Speaker 1:

my office being tortured to winning the Superbowl. Oh my God, Joey Cruz and I hugging it out because it was just unreal. Oh, but I can't even, I don't want to interrupt you, but I couldn't even believe that happened. I couldn't even believe it happened for you and Joey to be able to enjoy and that sports incredible ascension and producer Nick has rolling cause it should have been the vikings and producer. Nick is, you know, I remember when the Eagle slayed the vikings and they got knocked out and it was a not good thing for producing. That was a wonderful thing for us over here. Producer Nick is spinning around rapidly in a chair if we're getting very excited. Yeah.

Speaker 3:

Dinner Deck is just keeps saying all these accolades and, and, and just so the short of it is thank you. And, and I wish nothing but the best for each and everybody here. Um, and absolutely one of the things that's most important to me is to, to remain part of the family while not physically here. I'll always be here and you know, I cannot just express that enough to each other.

Speaker 1:

I want to be good. We appreciate that. We're going to miss you very much. Take a personal day sometime and uh, come back and see us. So I said to the kids, I want to be here for the picnic. And one of the kids said, oh, of course you are. It's a food. Perfect. That's a perfect note to go out on a Dave Lugo. Thank you very much. Um, this you guys, uh, this is uh, Mr Orf reminding you to like us on Facebook and follow us on Instagram and Twitter. Share this podcast with a friend. Um, check out our youtube page as well. Um, some great videos up there. Mr Mr Lugo is actually on one of our videos on the website for the original health science academy video. These on the time machine, go back in time and see him when he was just as thin as he is now. Listen to this podcast on Spotify, Google play and iTunes. And this is Mr Orf. Uh, on behalf of myself, Mr Lugo, Nick Mckay, Iris Caskey, and my partner Dave Nash, reminding you to discover your passion and unlock your future.

Speaker 4:

Hi, Mr Lugo, Emily for Shella, also known as chip. I'm here today to talk to you and on behalf of all of our student body here at the SAYPAC campus. So now what I'd like to say to you is thank you, and I'm sure everyone's already said that to you, but I don't know if anyone's explained why at many homes, schools, the administrators always say the door's always open and they close it, but with you, on the other hand, all the students always came in and always said Hi. And they knew they could confront you, whether it was academic issues or teacher issues or personal issues, they always knew they could come to you. And I think that makes a big impact on our school. So on behalf of students, I just like to say thank you.