Robert Dodd is surrounded by history in his new office at Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda. On the wall directly behind the desk is a picture of Walt Whitman himself. Hanging on another wall is a letter dated Oct. 31, 1968, from then-Montgomery County Public Schools Superintendent Homer Elseroad. The letter congratulates Dodd’s father, formerly the principal of the now-closed Parkside Elementary School in Silver Spring, on the birth of his son, mistakenly referred to as “William Robert Dodd.”
And the new principal also enjoys showing off his wooden desk, which he proudly admits once belonged to Jerome Marco, a beloved Whitman principal who led the school from 1975 to 2004 and for whom the school’s football stadium is named.
“On July 2, when I got here for my first day of work, I called my 90-year-old dad and said, ‘I’m sitting at Jerry Marco’s desk, and I’m looking out the window at his name [on the stadium],’” Dodd said. “For him, it was a special thing.”
Education runs in Dodd’s family. In addition to his father, his mother was a teacher, as is his sister. He met his wife, Jennifer, when they attended Paint Branch High School together, and they have two children in the school system—a son starting at Montgomery Blair High School and a daughter in fourth grade.
Dodd, 49, is a Montgomery County native who has been an MCPS employee for 25 years, taking over as principal of one of the county’s highest-achieving high schools, following the June retirement after 14 years of Alan Goodwin, another well-regarded leader of the school. Dodd previously served as principal of Strathmore Elementary School and Argyle Middle School, both in Silver Spring. He then became a lead consulting principal in MCPS’s Office of Human Resources and Development. He said he was particularly proud of his time at Argyle. It was there that, according to The Washington Post, Dodd “worked diligently” to change the image of the school, which consists of mostly minority and low-income students.
Dodd said he has a similar goal at Whitman in helping minorities succeed, particularly African Americans and Latinos.
“We have many students who are excelling at Whitman, but there are achievement gaps that we have to address, and that’s not just an achievement issue, but it’s also a cultural issue at the school,” he said.
Dodd said his three main areas of focus for the school year are creating equity for all students, building student-teacher relationships and improving students’ psycho-social development when it comes to handling stress. He said he held “study circles” over the summer to find out main concerns of students, parents and teachers.
“We heard from students and how they felt, and some of them didn’t feel as included as they should. So we really have to work together as a school community to address that,” he said.
Dodd said he will continue to meet informally with students throughout the year to help them feel comfortable at the school. As did Goodwin, he said he hopes to foster an environment where open communication occurs between students and teachers in order to help students feel less worried both about their academic work, and stressful news events like school shootings.
“I think that our counselors and our administrators and our teachers are consistently having conversations with kids about striking that right balance of doing well in school, but also being a well-rounded person and making healthy choices,” he said.
Dan Schere can be reached at Daniel.schere@moco360.media
