“When I was teaching choir many years ago I developed nodules on my vocal cords and I was continually losing my voice and I was seeing a throat specialist. He kind of jokingly said, ‘well here are your two options: we can go on and do surgery and take those nodules out but you would be on complete vocal rest for a minimum of eight weeks. Or you can change jobs, where you’re not singing all day everyday.’

Well, I had already gotten my masters in administration because I wanted to get into something that I could use if I ever did want to change careers or move out of the classroom. A masters in music doesn’t really afford you a lot of opportunities outside of the music classroom. So I had just completed my masters in administration in August of ‘93 and I was out of school, a brand new school kind of like the way GCAA started where you added a grade every year. At the time of my voice problems, they were getting ready to add another grade, so they were adding two assistant principals. When my doctor said that I thought, ‘hmm.’

So at the very last minute I thought well, I’ll just go and put my name out there and that was that. So I moved from the choir room on the first floor to my office on the 2nd floor in that same building. I taught for 15 years and then I was an administrator for 15 years, and then retired and then of course went back.” -Lisa Kaczmarczyk, High School Principal