Portrait of a Graduate, Portrait of a Crisis: What Education Must Fix Before the Future Arrives

College and or Career Readiness in the Age of AI in 2025 - The Coming Workforce Winter and What Education Must Do Before the Job Market Freezes by Mark Erlenwein, Principal - Staten Island Technical High School I’ve been in public education long enough to have seen pendulum swings, policy cycles, silver bullets, and reforms … Continue reading Portrait of a Graduate, Portrait of a Crisis: What Education Must Fix Before the Future Arrives →

Suplexes, Scantrons, and School Spirit: How Wrestling Raised a Principal

by Mark Erlenwein (Special thanks to Dr. Lavie Margolin and John ‘Poz’ Pozarowski for the fun interview on Episode 261 of “The Business of the Business” podcast, which inspired writing this article.) If you had told four-year-old me, perched on my father’s shoulders outside Madison Square Garden, waiting to rub WWF champion, Bob Backlund’s crew-cut … Continue reading Suplexes, Scantrons, and School Spirit: How Wrestling Raised a Principal →

Settings: School Mode

In August 2025, a new law went into effect across New York State, requiring all public schools to ban personal cell phone use during the school day. For many, this may feel like a revolutionary moment. But for those of us who’ve been in the trenches of education for decades, balancing the marvels of innovation … Continue reading Settings: School Mode →

Marking Period(s) – Leave Off the “S” for Less Stress for Students and Faculty.

With most schools utilizing online Learning Management Systems, which provide 24/7 access to student academic data via desktop or mobile computers / phones, many schools still utilize the two-term, 4 or 6 marking period model, with a distributed paper report card at the conclusion of each marking period. Why? Upon implementing an online Learning Management … Continue reading Marking Period(s) – Leave Off the “S” for Less Stress for Students and Faculty. →

Academic and Social Emotional Wellness for High Achieving Students

Mark Erlenwein My Journey thus Far as the Principal of SITHS Making the Experience of High Achieving Students Rigorous, Healthy and Meaningful In 2013 I became the newly appointed fourth principal of my alma mater after 16 years as a STEM teacher and assistant principal in the same building I practically grew up in. My … Continue reading Academic and Social Emotional Wellness for High Achieving Students →