Listen to the interview here!
Gordon Hoodak
Toni Reece: Welcome to the Get Inspired! Project. I’m Toni Reece, and today I am thrilled, honestly, to be in front of Gordon Hoodak. Gordon, please take a moment and introduce yourself.
Gordon Houdak: My name is Gordon Hoodak. I’m principal of Lauer’s Park Elementary School in the Reading School District.
Toni: Fantastic. We’re going to go into the very first question of the Project, which is, what does inspiration mean to you?
Gordon: I think inspiration is how you can influence others. I think it’s by how you conduct yourself, how you handle yourself in the situations you are in, whether you’re dealing with people in your professional life or in your personal life. I think it’s people sensing that you’re a real person, you’re genuine, and they feel what you’re doing is not self-serving, and that you’re looking at trying to make a difference for people and not for yourself.
Toni: How do you take what inspiration means to you and put that into practice here in Berks County?
Gordon: I’m very lucky, and I really mean that when I say I’ve been very lucky to have such a great job in Reading. I’ve worked in the Reading School District for 41 years and had opportunities to leave over the years, but there was something about the job. There was something about being with the kids. There was something about being with the families.
There was the challenge at Lauer’s Park, because it was the lowest performing school in the school district many years ago. There really wasn’t a belief system that the kids were good students or that the parents cared or that the staff were good teachers. It was a feeling that there was no hope. I think how I put that into place is staying at Lauer’s Park all these years, choosing to do that, not because anybody forced me, but it was, in my opinion, the right thing to do. Having an impact on kids who have made a difference on this community, as they become young adults; having an impact on staff who I’ve hired over the years that have the same vision that I do and believe the same things, and watching everyone grow up. Watching the maturity of my staff take ownership in what we do. They don’t really need me any longer.
It’s almost like when you’re a dad or a mom and you’re raising your own children, you hope you get to a point your children don’t need you, that you’ve taught them the values and how to be a good citizen, and they need you at some point for advice or nurturing as we all do, whether they’re your family or others.
That’s how I look at the school. I’ve raised it from a little kid, and I’ve now put the school in a position that there are many moms and dads taking care of kids who have a very clear vision and a belief system of what we want to do and how we want to do it that none of it is self-serving, whether it’s for me or my staff. You wouldn’t be at Lauer’s Park if you were looking at what was good for you. You’re looking at what’s good for kids and families, and when you do that and your motives are pure, then good things happen because it changes a culture and ultimately it makes your life much easier, because you’re not fighting kids, you’re not fighting parents, you’re not fighting community.
Toni: It’s amazing how the impact of how you’ve described what inspires you as far as not having it be self-serving, making a difference, that you’ve been able to take that inspiration and apply it to so many people within a school, not only your staff. I like the way that you say it’s not just the kids, but it’s your staff and how you’ve all grown up together. That inspiration has really fed through many, many levels, hasn’t it?
Gordon: Yes. It’s hard to beat when you get a phone call from a parent of a student you had 35 years ago that will just call you out of the blue from another state because they think about you, and they just want to call you and tell you their story, how their kids are doing and how they’re doing, and how much they appreciated the year or two or three they spent at the school and with us.
You don’t realize the impact you have on people. That’s what I try to teach all my young teachers and teach all the young student teachers coming in, that just as a mom and dad have a great impact on their own children, we as educators have a great impact on the kids that we have in our classrooms every day, and we don’t realize how powerful our words are and what we say and what we do and how we treat people. We take it for granted, but it will either make a student or it’s going to do something to effect them in a negative way.
Toni: Gordon, who in Berks County inspires you?
Gordon: You look back, and when I was a young teacher there were teachers that I worked with at Lauer’s Park and at 5th and Spring Elementary School – Ruth Ermentrout and Jeannie Miller who were great teachers. Geraldine Postetter from 5th and Spring. I came to Lauer’s Park and I met Bernarda Palms and Sara Gallagher and Jean Makara and Charlie Kessler – just outstanding teachers. Good quality people. You looked at who they were and how they handled kids and how they handled their job.
I look at the people who brought me to Reading – Kitty Kauffman, my supervisor in Phys Ed and Vincent Oberra, who I respect greatly, how they handled their job as administrators and how they treated me as a young teacher and made me feel good about who I was, even though I was a terrible teacher. They inspired me. They made you feel good and that you wanted to work hard not to disappoint them.
Then I move on and I go to other schools, and you have other people – Bill Manderbach, the principal who talked me into going into administration along with Vince Oberra, who again was a great role model. Then you start to get into the job of administration, and then you start to meet the people out in the community. Senator O’Pake was never too busy and always found time. They’d kid, “The Senator’s here,” but I would always say, “Yes, but he is here. He took the time. He found the time, and always made you feel good about what you were doing.”
You talk about Kevin Murphy from the Community Foundation. He does things and nobody even knows they’re doing it. Al Boscov – you think a gentleman like Al Boscov, he’s very influential. I’ll never forget Al Boscov when he was buying and fixing houses for families near our school. I remember going over on Sunday afternoons and how he treated the families, and how he never put himself above anybody and treated himself as a regular person and made the everyday person feel very special.
I could go on in this community. You look at ex-mayor McMahon. I met him when he wasn’t the mayor. I remember he came over to the school to read to kids. One day we’re in the parking lot and he was doing something else, and that was probably 25-30 years ago, and he just came over and handed me $20 or $25, which was a fortune back then. He said, “I want you to take this money and buy the kids some books.”
I look at my friends from Alvernia University, Kutztown University – some great partnerships. There are so many people – Bill Richardson – BCAP when Bill Richardson was there. I remember all those folks, and all I remembered as a young administrator or teacher … “I don’t want to disappoint you,” because the school board hired me. I don’t want to disappoint them. People would always say nice things when they would meet me. They would say, “Boy, we like what you do.” How could I disappoint you? Then, you go back, and you certainly don’t want to disappoint your mom and dad when you’re the first kid in the family to go to college. You don’t want to give this opportunity away. Not many people had the opportunity.
Toni: What I’m hearing from you – and I’m lucky enough to sit across from you – is that the people that you have listed who inspire you in Berks County really are showcasing your definition of inspiration, and you’ve described what they do and what they’ve done for you and what they do for others, and again, it’s not that self-serving situation. I find that’s pretty amazing.
Gordon: Then you have to throw in, and I can't forget all the folks from the Reading Phillies. I try to watch what good leaders do. Besides the Reading Phillies, Chuck Domino from the Reading Phillies – a top-shelf man, but my first superintendent, Dick Kahn. I remember to this day how I watched how he handled himself in a crowd and how he treated all the administrators and he worked the room and worked the crowd, and how he recognized everybody that was at whatever function it was. He went out of his way to make you feel good, because he recognized you were there. I learned a whole lot how I wanted to treat people. What I always admired about Chuck Domino was it didn’t matter when I called him if I got him or not. He’d call me back. He’d get back to me.
Toni: That is a phenomenal trait. I can attest to that, sir; you’ve done very well with us here as well. You’ve been very responsive calling us back and being very gracious to do the interview. It’s stories like this for the Get Inspired! Project that we always wish that we had more time, because it’s just wonderful to listen to you. The final question of the Project is this – what do you want your legacy to be?
Gordon: I want my family to think I was a good dad and good family person. From work, my legacy will be that kids that I’ve had a chance to be around, these young people, that they grow up to be productive citizens and they think about the old guy now and then and say, “He wasn’t so bad.” My staff, I hope they want to continue doing what they’re doing or as they move on take some of the things we’ve done together and make their own life story, and whatever that life story is, that it’s something that has an impact on community and families. I don’t think about tombstones or anything like that.
Toni: No; it’s just working that legacy.
Gordon: I think it’s what people think in their heart.
Toni: Right.
Gordon: That’s what’s important, because nothing else matters.
Toni: Gordon, I can tell you that today – just today – I had you referred to me as a gentle giant, and that is exactly how you have come across to me in this interview and also our conversation prior to this interview, and I cannot thank you enough for being part of the Get Inspired! Project.
Gordon: Thank you for having me. It was very kind of you.
Toni: Thank you so much.
