Moving on up!
We will welcome new principal in ‘01-‘02
By Matt Powers

Although the Webster High School building has experienced nearly four decades of wear and tear, it’s still as vibrant and alive as the day its doors first swung open to welcome students.
Similarly, the restored ‘64 Chrysler convertible driven by Assistant Principal Pustulka still growls with life as its engine turns over.
Now, just as he has tweaked, improved and continued maintenance on his car through the years, he will strive to do the same with WHS when he becomes principal this fall.
“It’s exciting. In my own mind, this has always been a dream of mine,” he said.
Mr. Pustulka was named to the position, which has been held by Mr. Soper for nearly the last two years, late last month. His career in education began when he taught industrial arts from 1977-81 at Cheektowaga Central. He then left teaching for about 12 years to go into wholesale-retail distribution of building products.
In the early nineties he returned to teaching, this time in the city of Rochester. He came here as a technology teacher in 1994 and accepted the job as assistant principal in 1997.
Although he won’t sit behind the ‘big desk’ until this summer, he has a lot of ideas brewing. The main one for now is to finish the initiatives that are presently in place. They include continued focus on block scheduling and the transition of WHS to a 9-12 program, he said, along with other aspects of the “Building the Future” program.
His highest priority, he said, is to help students to perform and achieve the best they can academically.
Along with that, he wants to help students to “take a look at the opportunities they have while they’re in school.” He would like to give students more opportunities to visit work places that appeal to them. These trips would allow students to explore careers through interaction with company employees.
Another opportunity he would like to offer students is the chance to “help, volunteer.” He said it would be beneficial for a student to “give a little something of yourself back to the community,” especially in senior year. Many students, he noted, are just wrapping up their courses and have time in the afternoon to volunteer if they take all their classes in the morning.
He also wants students to recognize that what they are able to learn at WHS is not only the content in the books, but social and interpersonal skills as well.
As for what comes from textbooks, there is a plaque with a saying outside of his office that reads, ‘What do I need to know? Why do I need to know it? and How am I going to use it?’
“I think that we, as educators, need to be able to look at a kid and say, ‘You may not use this every day of your life, but you’ll encounter this information someday and be able to use your knowledge to your advantage,” he said.
Outside of work, his main hobby is restoring old cars with his son. Many may have seen his ‘64 green Chrysler convertible in the parking lot. He affectionately calls the free time he spends working on old cars, his “brain-floss time.”It is a time when he can clear his head and relax because there is no schedule to follow.
As a principal, perhaps the biggest thing he wants to do for students however, does not involve academics. “I think as educators, we have to help them believe in themselves, which is sometimes tough to do. We have to show them and measure them by their successes. And when there are failures, realize that failure is just a step. If you learn from that failure and choose to make a change, that failure becomes a success.”
“So many successful people have failed,” he said. He referred to the founder of Wal-Mart who went bankrupt three times before he got a business going and Thomas Edison, who tried 150 times before finding the right filament for the light bulb.
He repeatedly expressed his desire to make possible this idea of taking failure and turning it into success. “We need to address the students’ educational needs and give them support, so that they can fully achieve their potential,” he said. If students need extra assistance, the staff has to be willing to help get them additional support and resources, he said - as long as the students are putting their all into achieving it.
The future principal wants students to have a very positive experience here. He hopes that graduating students take with them the realization that what matters once you get out into the workplace is character - and the pride that is evident from work done well.

What do parents do when their child is critically ill and being cared for in another state? Can they afford to stay in a hotel for days, weeks, even months? Most cannot, and that is where the Ronald McDonald House comes in.
It is a place where families of sick children can stay inexpensively. This is one of the several charities that Jar Wars donated to this year.
In another record-breaking year, students and faculty raised over $14,000 between March 19 and 23, raising the 11-year total to more than $100,000 dollars.
Among the other charities that will benefit from the donations are: Feed the Children, Alternatives for Battered Women, Humane Society, Arboretum, Webster Community Chest, and the Humane Society, according to Mr. Carmen Gumina.
Even though the fund-raiser has been going on for more than a decade, enthusiasm has not cooled. John Denman, a senior here, said, “I think it’s kind of cool how we’re all raising money for charity.” “[Jar Wars is] awesome, it’s a lot of fun,” Junior Kaitlyn Finch said. What motivates her to participate in Jar Wars is “the competition and that it’s for charity.”
Even people such as Cenza Ferrante, a sophomore, who say that Jar Wars is “too competitive and it goes to people’s heads,” says she participates “because it’s for charity.”
Jar Wars, commented Mr. Baier, a science teacher, is “an awesome activity that brings the entire school together for a common cause.”