LANSDALE – Each day, a high school student receives about 8-10 emails from colleges yearning for their consideration and their application as soon as possible. That does not even begin to compare to the 43 emails that North Penn Superintendent, Dr. Curt Dietrich, received within a three and a half hour time frame yesterday morning.

On any given day, Dietrich finds himself constantly checking his email in an attempt to catch up in order to stay in the loop.

Usually, Dietrich finds himself working in the back left corner of North Penn School District’s Educational Services Center (ESC) in his crème and NP blue colored office. On some days, however, Dietrich ventures beyond his every day setting to meet with administrators at one of North Penn’s 18 school buildings.

This past Monday, Dietrich’s day began with a scheduled meeting at Pennfield Middle School. After the meeting, we walked around the hallways to observe and also to converse with teachers and faculty. Dietrich values this time outside of the ESC because he does not get around to the buildings often.

The time at Pennfield was cut short when Dietrich had to make his way back to the ESC to continue on with his long list of scheduled meetings for the day.

When Dietrich set foot back in his office, he immediately joined a biweekly meeting already in session between North Penn’s Assistant Superintendent, Diane Holben, and the Director of Elementary Education, Dr. Elizabeth Santoro. When that meeting drew to a close, the Director of Secondary Education, Deborah McKay, was almost immediately ready to begin the next biweekly meeting.

That pattern continued on for most of the day, for when one meeting closed, another one opened immediately if not, shortly after. With that pace, Dietrich sat in on a total of five meetings before noon.

Even though there seemed to be an overwhelming amount of meetings, each held great importance. The meetings, held biweekly and weekly depending on the department, help Dietrich stay up to date with the various departments. He’s able to discuss, analyze, and question each department’s agenda for the upcoming week(s).

A couple hours later, the meetings settled, but even though nothing else was officially scheduled, Dietrich was still consistently busy. On that day, he actually had to adjust his schedule in order to address an incident that had occurred within the district.

Aside from that, though, he was still occupied with a bunch of emails, phone calls, and impromptu meetings. At times, he contacted a colleague down the hall and other times he contacted a Superintendent from another district. Dietrich always needed to communicate with someone, but he handled it all efficiently, which overall showed his high level of professionalism.

Because of his busy, demanding schedule, there was never really an official “break” for Dietrich, except for a brief lunch. Even when my day ended with Dietrich, he still had to attend a few more meetings before his day was done.

Despite his office door acting like a revolving door all day, Dietrich did not seem fazed by it. In fact, through his interactions and work ethic, Dietrich showed that he thoroughly enjoyed working with his colleagues. Similarly, his colleagues displayed a high level of respect for Dietrich and his work as well.

In the beginning, Dietrich was just a school board member who became interested in school administration “because he saw how it all worked”. Now, he’s in the top position, and he loves every second of it.

“I find [this job] very rewarding. I appreciate the opportunity the community has given me to serve as superintendent,” remarked Dietrich.