A truly remarkable woman left this earth two days ago, unexpectedly and far too soon. She was my incredible principal, a pillar of our Overland-Prairie community, a mother of three children, a wife, a fierce advocate of education, a singer, and a Servant of God. I have been struggling with the shock and the pain since I heard the news, grasping and failing to make sense of this. This year has already been hard enough, our community has already absorbed too much heartbreak, without losing Aleshia. Our Leader and our Light is just gone, with no warning. Just here one day and the next day...not. This wasn't supposed to happen.
I think it's human nature to view losing someone through the lens of how it affects you personally. It's not a particularly noble thing to admit, but we can't help it. As I write about her, my mind keeps coming back to Aleshia Armour the principal. As many people far more qualified than I could speak to, she was also so much more than that, but she was one hell of a principal and she was just getting started. So I am going to write about that.
The great ones don't come along very often. As a teacher you are lucky to get maybe one a career. I've been fortunate enough to have two, and I knew in my gut that Aleshia was going to be the greatest principal I'd ever have. As a performing arts teacher you have a different relationship with your principal than a lot of teachers do, it matters a little more to you who sits in the big chair. Part of this has to do with the fact that every year you have to advocate and argue for your continued existence in order to keep your job and to keep your program functional, part of it stems from the fact that when you and your students spend hours and hours of your life and an incredible amount of work creating concerts, plays, musicals, etc. it means a lot when your leader shows up to them and gives you all validation that they see your hard work and that you're doing a good job.
Aleshia hired me, just a little shy of two years ago. We knew each other; she had worked at Prairie up until the year before I started there and so we knew a lot of the same people, and one of her children had been in my choir in their seventh grade year before transferring to a new middle school where Aleshia became an assistant principal. She had seen firsthand what I did with Prairie's choir and had firsthand accounts from her child of what I was like as a teacher. Luckily I didn't screw it up and those things worked in my favor. When she was announced as Overland's next principal I started getting excited. I was looking around for high school jobs and Overland became an even more attractive position knowing she was at the helm. I had learned over the years how much Aleshia loved the arts, and choir specifically since she was a singer. It had been an important part of her life and she saw its value.
Do you even know how rare that is? To have an administrator who doesn't just support choir but actually knows and sees its value to the human experience?
My experience in getting the Overland position wasn't easy: my connections to Overland and to Aleshia got me in the door, but that was it. I will never forget sitting in my finalist interview with her. She started off by thanking me for everything I had done for Prairie's choir and for the community, and then followed it up with "that being said, choir is very near and dear to my heart and I need to make sure that whoever I hire for this position is the right fit, personal feelings aside." She let me know right away, in no uncertain terms, that my personal connection guaranteed me nothing if she didn't believe that I was the right person for the job. She then proceeded to grill me with tough questions, and tough follow-up questions, for an hour. That was Aleshia...loving and kind but also a complete and utter badass.
I left that interview feeling unsettled and sad, worried that what I had said wouldn't be enough. But at the same time, I was excited. I wanted to work for her so badly after that exchange, because I had never experienced a principal who cared enough about who their choir teacher was to put their candidates through the ringer like that. "I may not get this job," I thought, "but if I do, oh my God will working for her be amazing." She intimidated me in the best way, in that way that makes you always want to do your best and to do whatever it takes to make her proud.
That interview took place on a Friday. On a Sunday morning I received an email from her: she needed to talk to me one more time and ask me a few more questions. Could I come in and see her at her office at Smoky Hill the next day? The picture became clearer. She wanted to hire me, she felt like I was the person who was supposed to have that job, but she needed to be sure. She needed me to reassure her one last time to trust her gut.
Now I have the unenviable task of needing to prove that she was right, knowing she's not here to see our shared vision come to pass. The rocky period that comes with a principal transition, the COVID-19 pandemic and now her death mean that her transformative and important tenure as our leader was cut tragically short. Aleshia was an absolute force of nature. I wanted to do whatever she asked of me and to never let her down. She was an intelligent, strong, warm, caring person who also took no shit. In Aleshia our Black students saw someone who looked like them who had risen so far in the ranks of our district and our education system that has embarrassingly few voices of color. She reached out to our Latinx, Indigenous, Muslim, and LGBTQ+ students, embracing the diversity that makes Overland such a special place. She had such big plans for us, and selfishly all I can think about is our school, and how we'll never get the Aleshia Armour Era that we could have had.
Where are we supposed to go from here? I was just seeing a light at the end of this tunnel, and so was she. One of my last memories of her is when she shared the news to all of us that our entire staff was getting vaccinated the following week. She was practically in tears as she joyfully told us, "finally we have some hope that this is coming to an end." And now, just weeks after that beautiful day, she is gone. The tunnel has collapsed. I know I have to pick up the shovel and start digging my way out, moving back towards the light, but that feels impossible right now. I am so tired, and I'm struggling to feel hopeful about a future that doesn't have Aleshia in it.
There is so much I never got to say to her. So many ideas I never shared with her. So many things I wanted to do with Overland Choir that I know she would have loved. For reasons I may never understand, that just wasn't her path. We were only meant to be blessed with her presence and leadership for this short time, and now it is up to us to keep her dreams and legacy and love for our community and our kids alive. And so I will pick up that shovel and start digging myself out, I will do that for her. But not today. Not yet.
I will always be grateful for the fact that she was able to attend my first concert at Overland, my chance to make a good first impression and show her what I could do for Overland before the pandemic shut down the world. Afterwards she sent me this message, and I will be going back to this message many times in the coming years to remind myself that she believed in me and that she believed in the power of choral music.
Good Evening Phil,
What a performance tonight! Your first song actually brought tears to my eyes. I don’t know if that was your intent, but it worked. :-) Thank you so much for your kind words. I am so excited to be apart of such an incredible team. Our students are so talented and they deserve to be celebrated. I don’t think I shared this, but a major part of the reason I turned it around in high school was that my choir teacher, Bennie Williams, made it clear that in order to be a member of the Madrillairs, I would need to clean up my act. It worked! I love the work you’re doing and I’m so glad I hired you! The connections our students feel to you and to choir can truly make a difference. You truly are a rockstar.
Take care,
Aleshia
Rest in Power, Aleshia. Thank you for everything. I will never forget the responsibility I have to Overland Choir and our community. From now on, we'll be singing for you.
-Philip Drozda, March 2nd, 2021
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