Photos by W.L. Bill Allen Jr.

By Colleen Reynolds
Reporter

(June 18, 2009) — For as long as school bells have been ringing, students have tried to avoid the goosebump-inducing summon to the principal’s office. For Heather Muller, the first-year principal at Our Lady of the Assumption School in Wood-Ridge, the call could not have been more welcome.

Last summer, at the age of 29, Muller became the youngest principal in the 70-year history of the Catholic institution, which enrolls 215 students from the pre-K3 level through eighth grade. With her first year at the helm drawing to a close, the platinum-blond former teacher managed to pencil in time between field day and graduation to talk to The Leader about how she arrived in Wood-Ridge, the additions she has made to the school calendar and her vision for her students.

“My biggest thing is I want to get to know the kids, their names, not just recognize their face,” the Bergenfield native explained. “I don’t want to just be that face in the office. I want them to know me. I want them to see me around the school, in the classrooms, to be able to come to me if there’s an issue going on.”

As Muller described her goals, each of her points was punctuated by the rhythmic chiming of church bells drifting in through the windows, as though a theatrical effect from one of the myriad plays and musicals in which she performs in her spare time.

Before the school year, Muller invited faculty members out to a local diner in an effort to foster deeper relationships. “Rather than me just coming in and being handed the keys,” she said, “I really wanted to get to know them a little bit on a personal level.”

Her rationale foreshadowed her modus operandi for the whole year: building a community and enhancing educational opportunities, while respecting school traditions.

A natural leader, Muller believes it is no coincidence that she became involved in education, specifically administration. “If I was ever in a group and they needed somebody to volunteer, when no one would raise their hand, I was always like, ‘All right, I’ll do it,’ ” the vivacious principal revealed with such enthusiasm one might have thought she was volunteering for a starring role on the spot.

Muller, a Walt Disney fan who owns five dogs, has had her share of starring roles, and the parallels between actor and principal are striking. Take Maria von Trapp, the apron-wearing heroine who spins like a whirling dervish in the Austrian mountains in “The Sound of Music.”

“In ‘The Sound of Music,’ what do the kids do? They get scared. They run into Maria’s bedroom with the thunderstorm. When the kids are scared or upset, they come to me about things,” Muller analogized, noting her always-open office door and how she speaks with students side by side, never from behind the barrier of her desk.

“She’s a wonderful person to be with on and off the stage,” shared Amy Orlando, 30, who befriended Muller as they performed together in shows such as “Crazy for You” and “42nd Street.”

Orlando recalls Muller’s supervisory skills coming into play during rehearsals for “Annie,” when Muller expertly managed the 40 children playing orphans. Orlando also remembers Muller grading papers and making tests in the dressing room during breaks. “You can’t help but love her.”

At graduation, Muller relied on her training in improvisational theater to speak without a script. In summer, when the spotlight of the school year fades, Muller plans to utilize her stage-managing experience to do “nitty-gritty,” behind-the-scenes tasks like ordering new books.

Having been bitten by the theater bug, Muller hopes to instill an appreciation for the fine arts in her students. This year, she cast a talent show and next year she plans to reinstate the children’s choir. Assumption has also won a National Endowment for the Arts grant to display reproductions of famous paintings and sculptures.

Deborah Mueller, Muller’s similarly-surnamed administrative assistant, said she works just as well with Muller as she did with the previous principal who retired, despite the age difference. “It is good to see the church being progressive about education,” she said in reference to Muller’s youth.

A product of local Catholic schools herself, Muller attended St. Therese of Lisieux School in Cresskill through eighth grade, followed by the Academy of the Holy Angels in Demarest, where she was inducted into the Tri-M Music Honor Society and played the eponymous lead role in “Carmen,” one of the first operas to be performed by a high school.

Muller credits her father, Steven, for emphasizing that an education was the best gift he could give her. “She sets her mind to accomplish something and never takes the easy way,” he said, in turn.

With a bachelor’s degree from Rider University in elementary education and theater, Muller accumulated eight years of teaching experience at Our Lady of Mount Carmel School in Tenafly. In 2008, she earned her master’s degree in administration and supervision from St. Peter’s College. Within a week of graduating she was hired by Assumption.

“She has proved that she is more than capable,” stated the Rev. Brian Cullinane, O.F.M., who played a role in hiring Muller.

A sample of Muller’s long list of initiatives this year includes student outreach to veterans; a stepping-up ceremony between pre-K3 and pre-K4; Living Stations of the Cross, in which upper-grade students write and perform scripts involving the life of Jesus; and a prayer-buddy system pairing older students with younger ones.

“She’s added a lot of cool things,” said fifth-grader Vincent Costa, who especially enjoyed a ceramics class offered through the after-school enrichment program Muller started.

Sister Marie Gagliano, M.P.F., Muller’s immediate supervisor in the Archdiocese of Newark, described Muller as having “energy, enthusiasm and dynamism that are contagious.”

Suzanne Nardone, a kindergarten teacher, concurred. “It’s invigorating for us,” she said. “A different kind of vibrancy.”

Maria Lopes, a volunteer whose son is in the third grade, marveled at Muller’s openness to suggestion.

Believing that she has been brought to Wood-Ridge for a reason, Muller hopes to impart school pride in her students. To describe this ultimate of goals, she went back to the von Trapps and that ever-famous ditty, “Do-Re-Mi.”

“It’s funny, because if you go back to that one song — ‘Let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start’ — yeah, this is my very beginning here.”