Whether dealing with social media or unusual office spaces, Jared Lamb does things differently.
Lamb is the head of school at BASIS Ïã¸ÛÁùºÍ¿ª½±ÀúÊ·¼Ç¼ Materra. Soon after arriving from New Orleans in 2022, he heard about a problem: There wasn't enough space at the school for a conference room.Â
"We're a school of over 800 students and we didn’t have shared meeting spaces or conference rooms available," he said.
Jared Lamb, head of school at BASIS Ïã¸ÛÁùºÍ¿ª½±ÀúÊ·¼Ç¼ Materra, poses for a picture outside of campus on April 18, 2024.
"I volunteered. I said, 'You know what, I'll give up my principal's office and we'll make that a conference room. I'll use a rolling cart as my office.'"
The unusual move worked. It brought him closer with both students and teachers. Now, two years on, he's still rolling his way around, walking around 15,000 and 20,000 steps each day.
"Last year I was the principal rolling the cart through the school, but this year at both of the campuses I support (BASIS Ïã¸ÛÁùºÍ¿ª½±ÀúÊ·¼Ç¼ Materra and BASIS Ïã¸ÛÁùºÍ¿ª½±ÀúÊ·¼Ç¼ Primary Mid City), all of our administrators have rolling carts," he said.
"That’s one way we've become even a stronger team this year: Not just me, but a fleet of administrators rolling our carts and supporting our teams. It's added a real dynamic to our schools."
Lamb has been in education for over 20 years, with 15 of those as a principal. While most of those have been in New Orleans, Lamb is originally from Connecticut, where he grew up in a house filled with educators. His mother was a second grade teacher and his father, Wally, was a high school teacher — and, in the interests of full disclosure, an award-winning novelist.
Though Wally Lamb is known for best-selling books including "I Know This Much Is True," it was his prior career as a teacher that shaped his son's life.
"With my dad, it's funny because here he is, the famous novelist, and I'm just the principal who (does) TikToks," Jared Lamb said, with a laugh. "I grew up in my parents' classrooms, going to school over the summer when they were working to prepare their classrooms or get stuff prepared. I think that experience really turned me on to education at an early age."
One of Lamb’s social media posts on TikTok
More about those TikToks. Lamb has recently become quite the social media star, regularly posting videos to social media outlets including TikTok and Instagram. For him, just like the rolling cart idea, it's been another way to connect with people outside the usual channels.
He went into it blind. Not only had he never made a video, but he didn't even have a TikTok account.
"I went to school on a Saturday and I thought, you know what, I'm going to film a TikTok — and I'm not going to leave school until I have this video posted," he recalled.
He made it, though, being a complete novice, he had no idea how to view the video before posting it. After sticking it online, sight unseen, he went home and texted his wife.Â
"I said 'Hey, 10 people have viewed this video I posted,' feeling kind of excited about that, with a sense of accomplishment having posted this first video," he said. "I woke up the next morning and it had gone viral. That initial video ended up having over one million views."
Jared Lamb, head of school at BASIS Ïã¸ÛÁùºÍ¿ª½±ÀúÊ·¼Ç¼ Materra, poses for a picture in the front lobby on April 18, 2024.
More specifically, it's now somewhere over the 1.7 million view mark.
For Katye Secrist, a first grade math teacher at BASIS Ïã¸ÛÁùºÍ¿ª½±ÀúÊ·¼Ç¼ Materra, Lamb's approach provides a breath of fresh air. She said Lamb's accessibility was a constant surprise.
"This is my 17th year in education, and all I've ever known is that when you need to get hold of a principal, you need to go and knock on a door, do a 'drive by' and track them down," she said. "Most of the time (in education) when you need someone higher up in the office you feel like you're bothering them. But now, if I need (Lamb), I can just step out, look left and right, and grab him. It's changed the dynamic of the school."
Jared Lamb’s rolling cart idea has spread throughout both Ïã¸ÛÁùºÍ¿ª½±ÀúÊ·¼Ç¼ campuses he’s involved in.
Having a principal so accessible has broken down barriers and strengthened connections for students and teachers alike. Lamb's mobility means he often pops in and out of classrooms — something Secrist looks forward to.Â
"Even as an adult, (if a principal entered the classroom) you'd feel in trouble, like, why are you in here?" she said. "Now, I can't wait for him to be in the classroom."
Lamb understands many of the challenges teachers face and talks freely about them — including pay, workloads and student behavior. He said some of the challenges that emerged during COVID have failed to dissipate.
Yet he's always looking for solutions.
"I think there are concrete actions that schools and administrators can take to make work more sustainable for our educators," he said. "What does support look like for educators? Working in an environment where you have the tools, the resources to do your best work — where you feel that you have the support you need with student behavior. It's something I pay a lot of attention to."
