Bill Ryan/The Gazette Jerry Degrange said he looks forward to working with parents and staff at Brunswick Elementary School. He recently took the helm as the school's principal.

"The staff works really well with each other," Degrange said. "It's outstanding. I took the job immediately."

This summer, Degrange has been shuffling through piles of paperwork and greeting new staff. He's also anticipating the school's first open house, when he will meet and greet parents.

"I only have one chance to put my best foot forward," Degrange said in his new office, a blue carpeted room furnished with dark furniture. "I get to meet parents for the first time and speak with them."

Degrange's career in education spans more than 34 years. He was a teacher and advisor at Walkersville Elementary School for 10 years and taught at Middletown Elementary School for two years.

He first became a principal at Myersville Elementary School, where he remained for six years and later Waverley Elementary School for eight years and finally Yellow Springs Elementary School in Frederick, which he left to join the Brunswick Elementary school staff.

He said he has no plans to implement new programs at the school, which last school year passed the state-set Adequate Yearly Progress, after failing in 2002-2003 and 2003-2004 school years. In Maryland, all schools, according to the No Child Left Behind Act, must meet reading, math and attendance targets and are graded on those targets in an yearly progress report.

Instead, Degrange said he plans to build on the programs established by previous principals, including Stacie Jackson, that he said have proven successful.

Those programs include a focus on one-on-one tutoring, after school tutoring and staff development and relationship building.

"I'm really trying to maintain the excellence they've established," Degrange said. "I've always been a collaborative sort of principal. Almost all my decisions affect everyone else."

Degrange called his transfer to work in Brunswick a "full circle" move as he said he harbors several memories of community events, such as fish-fry dinners, that he attended when his grandparents resided there.

Later, Degrange himself lived in Brunswick for five years with wife Kathy and two sons. His son, Jonathan, is now a math teacher at Tuscarora High School.

In Brunswick, Degrange was a member of the Moose Lodge before moving to Walkersville.

At Yellow Springs Elementary, Degrange linked the school to the county's anti-bully program HERO, or Help Everyone Respect Others, to the elementary school. The program produced dramatic results in fostering conflict-free relationships between students, said Sandy Johansen, Degrange's former co-worker.

A guidance counselor for the past year at Yellow Springs Elementary School, Johansen said Degrange was a people-oriented principal who focused on a range of school-improvement projects.

She said Degrange "connects to people" and is "pretty good at understanding the whole picture."

In recent years, Degrange has promoted the Character Counts program and actively supported the reading program, Johansen said.

Eager to take the helm at Brunswick Elementary, Degrange was quick to underscore what he said is a difference in the role of principals today versus several years ago.

"Principals are no longer the leader," he said. "There are dozens of leaders in a school. Principals help lead the leaders. It's more of a team approach.

"I've got to learn to be a part of this team."