New principal eager to know Boulder City students

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Mona Shield Payne / Special to the Sun

King Principal Tony Gelsone, right, joins Treem Principal Lee Esplin in congratulating Jovan Waller Thursday during the fifth-grade promotion ceremony at Harriet Treem Elementary School. During the previous school year, Gelsone was the assistant principal at Harriet Treem Elementary, and Gelsone was the principal at Martha P. King Elementary.

Mon, Aug 10, 2009 (1:59 a.m.)

Click to enlarge photo

Before presenting students with awards and diplomas, Treem Principal Lee Esplin and King Principal Tony Gelsone, right, stand together listening to fifth-grade speeches Thursday during the fifth-grade promotion ceremony at Harriet Treem Elementary School.

Splash and Dash

  • A meet-and-greet will be held 6-7:30 p.m. Aug. 21 at Veterans Memorial Park’s splash park, 1501 Buchanan Blvd., to say farewell to former Martha P. King Elementary School Principal Lee Esplin and welcome new Principal Tony Gelsone. For more information, call the school at 799-8260 Monday through Friday before noon.

Splash and Dash

  • A meet-and-greet will be held 6-7:30 p.m. Aug. 21 at Veterans Memorial Park’s splash park, 1501 Buchanan Blvd., to say farewell to former Martha P. King Elementary School Principal Lee Esplin and welcome new Principal Tony Gelsone. For more information, call the school at 799-8260 Monday through Friday before noon.

One thing is sure if you pop into the office of new Martha P. King Elementary School Principal Tony Gelsone, he says.

You’ll hear his stories — plenty of them — and you may have to keep an eye on the clock, unless he’s due out on the playground.

“I know in a smaller community, once we get rolling and people get to know who I am, there will be lots of conversations,” he said.

Gelsone started at King Aug. 3, replacing Lee Esplin, who had led the school for seven years. Esplin was promoted July 1 to principal of Harriet Treem Elementary School, a larger, year-round school in Henderson. Gelsone, who was assistant principal at Treem, was promoted to the top job at King.

“It’s unique. I don’t think I’ve seen it before,” Gelsone said.

Because Treem classes are in session until August, Gelsone was able to work with Esplin his first month on the new job, showing him the ropes.

“We formed a relationship,” Gelsone said. “I was able to say, ‘See how we do things here. How do you do them at King?’ We were able to compare.”

Usually the contact between a departing and replacement principal consists of one four- to five-hour meeting to go over a checklist of details that need to be discussed, from academics to vending machines.

Gelsone had a month with his predecessor, and he was impressed with what he heard.

“As we went through the staff, I kept waiting for the ‘but,’” Gelsone said. “Lee had high words for the staff, and there was never a ‘but.’”

One of the unique characteristics Esplin told Gelsone about King was the nature of the Boulder City community. A resident of the Silverado area, Gelsone plans to get to know the community and let them get to know him, starting with a back-to-school meet-and-greet Aug. 21 at Veterans Memorial Park. Esplin will be there as well, to give the community a fond farewell. Gelsone also is sending out letters to parents and plans to use ParentLink to introduce himself through automated phone calls.

In the meantime, he has been inviting teachers in to the school to sit and have a soda and chat. He has coolers of soft drinks under his desk just for the occasion.

The community can expect changes in style perhaps, but not substance between him and Esplin, Gelsone said.

“Educationally, I haven’t seen any differences,” Gelsone said. “I’ll choose different words and a different approach. But both of us know our decisions are based on what’s best for kids.”

Gelsone plans to oversee the repair of the King playground, which recently was power-washed and needs to be painted in time for the first day of school. The blacktop has had problems with fine asphalt dust spreading onto children’s clothes.

He has been shown plans for a permanent solution, he said, and just needs to identify the funding.

That will be key to another priority: “Foursquare. I have to get my moves on with that,” Gelsone said.

Esplin knew his way around a foursquare court — the game of choice on the King playground. At Treem, the students favored tether ball, so Gelsone plans to practice his foursquare game before the first day of school, Aug. 24.

“I’m real competitive. I’m not going to have any mercy,” he said.

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