Finding Joy: A Profile of a Principal

The door is wide open. That is the first thing I notice as I walk into his office on a cold winter day. The new principal of West End Secondary School (WESS), Andrew Wintner’s door seems to be a symbol of his open-mindedness and a desire to connect with students and faculty. 

Wintner, who took over for Principal Joe Rodriguez mid-year, is making up for lost time by not only purposefully leaving his door open, inviting students and faculty to easily enter, but is often found interacting with students in the bustling halls. He can usually be seen cheerfully greeting them with a hello, or sometimes smiling while telling students to put their phones away.

Whether talking about his educational philosophy (he believes that “every student should have the right to a free public education that celebrates their strengths and their unique identities,”), or about the person who impacted him the most (his mom wins first place), or his greatest accomplishment (raising a family and being the dad to two young boys), or what he believes is the meaning of life (“Happiness, more than anything else. I'm driven by finding joy in my life.”), Andrew exudes thoughtfulness and candor when peppered with my endless questions. What I am most struck by is Andrew’s commitment to joy, kindness, and his desire to have an open dialogue with the WESS community. According to Wintner: “I try and lead with kindness, I try and be fair, I'm not perfect, but I do I try and make myself as approachable as possible, full well knowing that I am a principal, so I'm not maybe not everyone does feel comfortable chatting with me, but  I would hope that anyone does, cause that's what's helpful for me and important to me. I also think just physically being visible. is something that helps me engage with students, too.”

Andrew was raised in Hastings, New York. While majoring in psychology and political science at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Wintner reflects, “Teaching kind of felt like the intersection between those two domains and it felt like a way that I could impact change in a really meaningful and quick fashion.” After completing the competitive New York City Teaching Fellows initiative, he embraced the program’s guaranteed job security when he “fell in love with education” at just 22 years old. 

Wintner would later attend Mercy College for his Masters Degree in Urban Education. Andrew is not only committed to empowering others through education, he takes his own education seriously. After his first Masters’ degree, he pursued a second at Columbia University in Literacy. He then attended Hunter College where he received his doctorate in Educational Leadership.

Wintner’s educational philosophy closely aligns with WESS’ values.  He states, “I believe that every student should have the right to a free and appropriate public education that celebrates their strengths and their unique identities.” Key priorities for WESS are centered around ensuring that the school brings pride and joy to the community. Andrew’s eyes light up when he talks about his immediate mission: “I want WESS to be a place where everyone is proud to go to school and everyone is proud to go to work and families are proud to send their children to this school. I want it to be a place where joy is central to everything we do and we have fun as a community and enjoy being here.”

When asked how he plans to ensure that the school remains a safe, welcoming, and respectful environment for all students, he suggests that partnering with agencies and different organizations, such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) could be helpful; describing, “There's no place for hate to exist from our community members, even outside the four walls of this building. I think it's really important to note that there are tensions and we need to address those tensions that exist outside of school, so obviously, to pretend like they don't exist in schools too would be disingenuous to the folks who are impacted by it.” Wintner is clear that he does not want anyone at WESS -faculty, staff, parents, or students- to feel “less than”. When asked how he plans to foster an inclusive and supportive school culture for both students and staff, Wintner answers, “A lot of my philosophy around this is learned by experience and also stuff that I've read. I actually don't believe that anyone should be fighting for an inclusive environment. I believe that we should be fighting for an anti-exclusionary environment, which allows us to take an active stance towards pushing back against hate and anything that ostracizes people for having unique identities that are different from the mainstream.” 

While schools are politically coming under greater scrutiny for their DEI initiatives, Wintner leans into the diversity of WESS and acknowledges the importance of celebrating what makes individuals unique. In order to create an “anti-exclusionary environment” Wintner argues that schools often try to “mute diversity.” He describes how, “They try to pretend like everyone's the same rather than having difficult conversations about gender, sexuality, race, religion, the things that manifest in society.”  Wintner understands that if we ignore our diverse student body we will not be prepared to understand and embrace the diversity in the community beyond the school’s walls. According to Wintner, “New York is this beautiful melting pot that is incredibly diverse, and there are political aspects of things that are happening universally, that are making public school education, New York very hard for students and staff… If we don't address them in schools, we're going to create pockets of people who don't fully integrate with the rest of the community, and that's something that we need to actively think about and actively push back against to be the beautiful, united community we want to be.” Wintner’s views about the links between school and the greater community extend beyond embracing diversity. He believes that sustainable endeavors need to be implemented in schools while also carried into local businesses. While he acknowledges WESS’ programs that support sustainable projects such as the living wall and hydroponics lab as well as the work that's done in expeditions, he points out that “we can do better”. He notes that waste is plentiful at WESS and we can do better as a community to minimize our carbon footprint. “This building wastes a lot of paper, wastes a lot of electricity, wastes a lot of water in the bathrooms.”

 Wintner embraces the idea that the WESS community has a responsibility to those in the surrounding neighborhood. Sustainability, to him, is not only “through the environmental lens”, but  through an “economic lens” to ensure that “we're supportive of folks within the community.” He brings up the importance of shopping locally to support small businesses and making sure “when we shop, it is with an ethical lens.” 

Wintner’s role as a principal seems rooted in a multi-layered approach to addressing some of the greatest challenges facing public schools today. He recognizes the challenges students face due to the overload of social media which can make it, “really hard to be a high school or middle schooler in 2025, and with that, there is the need for more support.”  The ongoing impact of Covid-era policies on students and faculty is still a prevalent issue and there is a need for greater teacher longevity:

“The teaching profession overall has seen the shortages in teachers and teacher tenure at schools is essentially 2.5 years in public schools, which makes it really difficult to have consistency in staff, and I think a large part of that is teachers are the most amazing people in the world, teaching right now is harder than it's ever been and it's a job that requires you to be all in all the time, and that takes a toll on people.”

Wintner’s awareness that students and faculty are under extreme stress runs counter to what believes are the most important goals in his own life. “ I'm driven by finding joy in my life. Whether it's my personal life, my professional life, my academic life, I do things that bring me intrinsic joy. 
I'm not motivated by external factors. I like things that make me feel proud and happy to be who I am.  One thing I always try and strive for is to be a better version of myself each and every day, and to reflect on what I was yesterday and to grow into the next day.” It is this reflection of self that Wintner seems to bring to his work, especially regarding student participation. “Teaching, leading, and communicating all seem to be a work in progress that is collaborative and evolving.” 


To this end, Wintner understands that student involvement is key to engaging with scholars to ensure their voices are heard in school decision-making. He takes the surveys that are sent to the WESS student body seriously, however, he encourages student voices by encouraging direct involvement with critical decisions such as the school budget. “I think working with Fred and the student government on participatory budgeting, is something that's really important to make sure students know that their voices matter.”He plans to honor the work of the affinity groups and the student council that represent the community at large and ensure that he’s, “honoring the work that they're doing and creating pathways for them to feel successful.” However, Wintner’s desire to build an open-door community “comes back to this kindness idea. I would never say anything or do anything to a young person that I wouldn't want done to me. I try and lead with kindness, I try and be fair, I'm not perfect, but I do I try and make myself as approachable as possible, full well knowing that I am a principal, so I'm not maybe not everyone does feel comfortable chatting with me, but I would hope that anyone does, cause that's what's helpful for me and important to me. I also think just physically being visible. is something that helps me engage with students, too.” 


When discussing how he plans to support students with diverse learning needs, including those with IEPs or those who have English as a second language, Wintner recognizes that the proverbial playing field is not level but that all students need to get to the “same end goal.” He has high expectations for every single student in the WESS community, but “will create pathways for every single student to reach those same end goals.
I believe it's our job to hold rigor while simultaneously differentiating to support individual students, and I would posit that goes further than multilingual learners or students with IEPs, rather it might be any student who needs a different pathway of learning a different way to express their creativity, a different way to express their genius. I believe so deeply and differentiate work by interest, modality and readiness level to make sure that everyone feels like they can and will be successful towards the end of rigorous expectations.” Part of this pathway is rooted in getting WESS students college-ready but also having them take courses that energize and fulfill them. When asked about WESS embracing Advanced Placement (AP) classes while many public and private schools move away from offering the courses, Wintner says, “In my last job did a lot of work with what was called the college success office and a lot of admission advisors from colleges are starting to advise high schools to not only offer APs but offer a college-level classes that students don't get AP credits for, but are in conjunction with colleges throughout the country because what that signals to advisors is that they can actually be successful in a college-level class.” While he does “believe in AP for all” , he recognizes that there needs to be a balance and that no one should be forced to take a class that they're not interested in. “I do think we're going to have high rigor and we have to meet State expectations, but I would want students to choose the classes that they are taking.”

Andrew understands the need for parents and guardians to engage in their children's education but that there is no exact way to achieve this.  “I'm not perfect at this, just like everything else, but I do think one of my strengths is hearing what the community is saying and then putting tangible things in place to address it. Now the things I put in place might not always hit the mark, but I do think that I'm constantly influenced by family members in the community. I also just think, you know I have a young family. I think being present with my young family is also another way to build community with families at WESS because they're trusting me and the rest of the community with their most valuable asset, which is their children.”

Coming back to Wintner’s philosophy of joy, it’s not just an intangible feeling but something to actively infuse into everyday activities at WESS. “I do think there is a space for the school community to have fun with the family community. That's not necessarily predicated on work. Again, I think the coming back to this idea of joy, community is moved forward when they feel a shared sense of joy, like, finding ways to do events with families that are not necessarily academics.”  

There is a constant reflection and care when speaking with Wintner. He seems to genuinely care about academic excellence but also balancing the challenges of students who are under pressure in a diverse city with different stressors.  His leadership style and commitment to education seem to be connected to the best advice he has ever received which is from his mother. “My whole life, she has told me no one cares how much you know until they know how much you care. That's not her quote. It's a very famous quote, but no it doesn't matter how much money you have, how smart you are, or how much influence you have. People don't think you care about them, you can't influence them, and like, what's the point?”

 When asked, “If you could go back in time what would you tell your 17-year-old?” Without hesitation, Andrew shares truthfully, “Have fun… I just think life gets really serious, really fast and you need to just find a way to have fun ‘cause that's the point of this whole thing. Have fun.”