Call her the East High whisperer.
A leader who listens to her teachers and her students, to their dreams and their goals, the one in the office or in the hallways or the lunchroom making it happen as best she can.
Sue Cassata sees her job as principal as helping to create an environment where teachers can help students become thoughtful, enlightened and successful citizens.
“I empower (teachers) to lead but I empower them to lead in a direction that aligns with my philosophy," she said.
Here's how it played out when she left her job as North Star assistant principal to lead Lincoln East in 2008: She celebrated the solid reputation the school had built for academic rigor and excellence but pointed out that wasn’t the whole picture.
East, she stressed to the veteran staff, was more than its high test scores and National Merit Scholarship winners, its advanced-placement offerings and perfect ACT scorers and seniors heading to prestigious colleges.
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“Our data was so good we didn’t have to pay attention to all of it,†she said. “We talked only about our successes, not about our failures.â€
She began asking questions: What about the students who aren’t doing well? Why was that? What was in place to help them?
“She was very strategic about how she did that,†said Pat Hunter-Pirtle, director of secondary education at Lincoln Public Schools and the principal who hired Cassata as a coordinator at Southeast when he was principal there. “She’s slow and steady about that work but brought people along. That’s an attribute to her style.â€
That style brought her recognition in May — just as the coronavirus was sweeping the nation — when she was named Nebraska Principal of the Year by the Nebraska State Association of Secondary School Principals. She also was a finalist for national teacher of the year.
She’ll be honored Tuesday by the Lincoln Board of Education, a delay caused by the disruption of a pandemic that closed schools, canceled graduations and forced educators to figure out a whole new way of teaching.
Managing school and supporting stressed teachers in a pandemic has been one of the biggest challenges of Cassata's career, but certainly not the only one.
When she became principal at East, it was one of the smallest schools in the district.
Today, it’s one of the largest — portables now help contain the burgeoning enrollment that includes more students than when the school first opened as a combined junior high and high school.
It’s also more racially and socioeconomically diverse.
In 2008, the student population was nearly 93% white, and just less than 12% of its students qualified for the federal free and reduced-price lunch program. Today, while it’s still the least-diverse of all LPS high schools, it is 80% white, and more than 23% of its students are eligible for the federal lunch program.
Thirteen years ago, the average tenure of teachers was 20 years. Today, it’s five to seven years and has grown from 70 certificated staff to more than 145.
The development boom in east Lincoln accounts for some of the growth, but not all of it. Cassata believes more students from other parts of town choose East for its marching band or show choir or broad selection of advanced-placement courses.
Academics have always drawn students, Cassata said, but more students now see themselves in those classes.
“I would like to think we’re more welcoming than we were 13 years ago,†she said.
Over the years, Cassata said, the school has changed to better reach all students. It has more consistent grading scales and course offerings. Officials have worked hard to communicate better with parents. They’ve created classes for students who struggle with reading and math, offer more mental health support and have hired a more diverse staff.
“You begin whittling away at practices that benefited some kids but not all kids,†she said.
Hunter-Pirtle said Cassata has made being a principal what it must be to work: a lifestyle that seeps well beyond an eight-hour day — going to plays and orchestra concerts and football games and speech tournaments, meeting with parents and teachers and students.
There have been challenges.
A decade ago, East students threw green cards onto a soccer field after a championship soccer game against Omaha South, where 60% of the students are Latino.
Cassata apologized, suspended several students and brought other students together to talk about how to make amends. They wrote apologies and had several exchanges with Omaha South students.
“I own our mistakes,†she said. “If we’ve made an error, whether it’s large and gets lots of attention, or not, I apologize and I work to make it better.â€
While they owned what happened with Omaha South, it didn't create the sort of long-term change she'd hoped it might, and earlier this year, East struggled with racially charged incidents that show there's more work to be done.
“We are more inclusive in how we accept students, but I don’t think we’re better at not having racist incidents occur,†she said. “We struggle with it in the same way the larger community struggles with it.â€
She's had to deal with the trauma of student and staff deaths, of a world where lockdown drills are now routine and social media is an integral part of dealing with students, discipline and bullying.
Still, the biggest challenge as a principal of a large high school is making sure all kids are successful. The best part is working with a collaborative and community-oriented staff, and seeing students grow.
She started her career as a history teacher at Southeast, until Hunter-Pirtle hired her as a school coordinator. She taught at Doane College for a few years before going to North Star, then to East.
She loved being a classroom teacher, and being a principal means, in some ways, she's got a much larger classroom.
“I love going to school because of the people that are here — that every day I get to come to work with some of the best humans. What’s not to love about that?â€