Stepping Out     

During my first seven years as a superintendent, I never managed to make it to Techspo or the Spring Leadership Conference. My kids were little, I never felt comfortable being away from the district, and I always had “a lot going on.” 

In recent years, though, I have changed course and tried to attend both conferences. Aside from the fact that my kids are older and I am more familiar with my role, I feel like connecting with colleagues and learning from others with whom I do not normally interact is healthy and a way to pay it forward.

So it was almost a year ago now, at last year’s Spring Leadership Conference, that I went out to dinner with a group of colleagues and found myself seated across the table from someone I did not know. I introduced myself and we talked on and off and in between glasses of wine the rest of the evening. Her name was Maud Dahme.

Half of those reading this know who Maud Dahme is. For the other half, Maud is a Holocaust survivor. Born in 1936, she was four and half years old when the Nazis invaded the Netherlands. Just like another young Dutch girl, Anne Frank, Maud went into hiding soon after the invasion. Unlike Anne Frank, however, who was discovered and then died at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, Maud managed to survive and miraculously reunited with her parents, who had hidden away separately from Maud and her younger sister over the course of the war.

Maud ultimately wound up in the United States, assigned to a fourth-grade classroom in Queens when she was 14 years-old because she did not speak English. That did not stop her from graduating from high school on time, entering the workforce, having a family, becoming president of the New Jersey State Board of Education, earning an honorary doctorate degree from St. Elizabeth’s University, and leading an annual expedition of New Jersey educators to Holocaust sites in Europe every summer (yes, she is still doing this).

Riveted by Maud’s story, I invited her to speak to our staff on the opening day this past August.  After about an hour, she received a standing ovation, with at least half of the audience in tears (including yours truly). For about a week, I could not walk down a hallway in my district without someone stopping me to thank me for having her with us and telling me how powerful and moving it was. Several of our teachers connected with Maud subsequent to the event. She has now returned to Chatham four more times this year, three times to speak with a group of students and the most recent time for a parent/community event. Each time she has been here, she has come at her own expense and thanked me for having her. She has taken nothing and left us with inspiration and perspective.

I share this because it speaks to stepping out there. I avoided stepping out there in my earlier years as a superintendent because I always felt I had more important stuff to do (and sometimes I did). But when you get out there and are receptive to what you encounter, you never know where it can lead.  I made a new friend a year ago at the Spring Leadership Conference. It turned into a relationship that has now benefitted my entire faculty and another 1,000+ students and parents in Chatham. I had nothing planned for the opening of school this past year–the first time I had brought the whole faculty together in the auditorium since the pandemic–and it wound up being the single best day of my career.

Last week we dedicated a new library that we have created here in Chatham within our high school library. Supported by our local education foundation and resulting directly from Maud’s visits, it is called “The Maud Peper Dahme Library of the Holocaust.” The library will focus on forgotten or overlooked stories of survivors and victims, and serve as a monument to Maud’s impact on our school district.

Sometimes you wonder how you can be so fortunate or lucky. If you happen to head down in May for the Spring Leadership Conference, keep an eye out for Maud, because she will be there. If you’re lucky, you will get to hear her story and know her. But you have to step out first.

Cheers and Peace,

Mike LaSusa
2023-2024 NJASA President