By Tom Nguyen
Len Kizner—Bay Vista Fundamental Elementary School principal—celebrated this year's Fourth of July in New York City, and as the fireworks flashed, hissed and shot over the holiday skyline last Sunday evening, he stood with old friends on an apartment building rooftop. But for Kizner it could've been the top of the world.
After 34 years of working in Pinellas County schools, nine years as principal at Bay Vista, 5900 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. St. S., Kizner finally retired June 30.
"One of my students asked me earlier, 'What does it mean to retire?'" said Kizner, 59. "I told him, 'Johnny, when you're still in class, I'll be home sleeping.'"
His last week at Bay Vista was quiet. Six hundred students were all gone at the end of May, released from kindergarten through fifth grade into the summer to enjoy their youths. Shortly thereafter, the 56 full-time teachers emptied their classrooms for their own vacations.
Kizner and the cleaning crew were the only ones left in June.
He was there in the final moments of his career, preparing piles of paperwork and instructions for Bay Vista's new principal, Kris Sulte, and "making sure [she] could transition smoothly."
Kizner had been ready for months for his own transition, however.
Inspired by a district e-mail, he announced his retirement back in January. The e-mail announced that if anyone was interested in retiring this year, please notify the district as soon as possible. And so he did.
"The timing was right," he said. Kizner reflected on a close friend, who barely got a chance to enjoy her retirement before passing away. He believed that it was time to start focusing on his other passions—European travel, presidential politics, home improvement projects.
"I'll miss his presence in every single area of the school," said Stephanie Everhart, 39, president of the PTA at Bay Vista. "I'll miss his humor, his attention to detail, his compassion."
Born and raised in Boston, Kizner said his parents instilled in him and his three brothers an enthusiasm for education. Actually, there was never another option for the Kizner boys. "It was no question in our household," he said. "The only thing to be answered was which school to go to—that was the only question."
All four boys would go on to achieve master's degrees.
As for Len, he answered his parents with bachelor's and master's degrees in speech pathology and audiology at Emerson College. His original intention was to become a professor or to work with deaf children, helping them with their speech and hearing.
But somewhere during his undergraduate years—Kizner said he can't recall—he decided to intern at a local elementary school. And he discovered right away a new joy and sense of purpose.
"I loved working with the kids," Kizner said. "It was just the excitement from the day I walked into a public school, it reminded me of when I was a kid. I enjoyed helping them, seeing them grow and do things they couldn't before."
In 1995, he came to Bay Vista and in one year did what no other principal in the district had ever accomplished. It was the first school to become a fundamental school through a community grassroots effort and a school improvement initiative.
Kizner led the struggle to transform the school from a stagnant zoned school to a thriving fundamental school, which emphasizes a family oriented, back-to-basics style of teaching: parents must attend monthly parent-teacher meetings and scheduled conferences, while students must adhere to a strict dress code and be responsible for their own behavior in school.
Bay Vista gained the support of the parents, the School Advisory Council, and the district's Biracial Advisory Committee. In November 1996, the School Board unanimously approved the effort.
It was the sixth school in the district to become a fundamental school.
"That was definitely one of the most rewarding events of my career," he said.
For the past six years, Bay Vista students have scored among the highest in the state on the FCAT—a Florida standardized test used to reward schools with high-performing students along with schools where students are making steady progress.
Bay Vista typically attracts six student applicants for each available seat. Like all fundamental schools, it uses a random lottery to select students from its lengthy waitlist.
Everhart, who has two children attending Bay Vista, said she was immediately impressed with Kizner's patience and generosity. Her husband was uncertain whether to enroll their children in public or private school, so she made a phone call to Kizner, asking him if they could tour the campus.
"He could've just bumped us off the waitlist right then," she said, joking. "But he took the time to meet us, to listen to our concerns and show us around. By the end of the day, we were sold on the school."
Evan Billington, 11, recently graduated from Bay Vista and agreed with Everhart.
"He always made learning fun and exciting," said Billington, whose favorite subject is "probably math." "He made it easy to come to him for help because he was a cool guy."
For the past nine years, Kizner commuted from his home in Tampa to Bay Vista, getting there at 6:30 a.m. He focused on his paperwork early in the morning, but as the teachers and kids began pouring in, he walked around campus to greet everyone and then made sure the breakfast program ran smoothly.
After breakfast, he did morning announcements over the speaker system, updating the school on events and then wishing them well for the day. He met with School Board members, School Advisory Council members and concerned parents while classes were in session.
He walked through classrooms on a daily basis, offering both jokes and discipline to the students. Sometimes there would be meetings in addition to school and he would stay until 9 p.m.
"I just want the new principal to continue developing and strengthening the program," Kizner said. "Everything needs continued attention when working in public schools, even as high as our test scores are, we can always do better."