Black History is American History and should be taught throughout the year. However, while this reality is often neglected, February continues to be designated Black History Month. It is a time when we pay special tribute to generations of Black Americans who have lived in the United States and struggled through centuries of hardship, danger and adversity to become full citizens of this nation as defined in the 14th Amendment of our Constitution. Black History Month is a time to rejoice in and celebrate Black Americans’ many specific historical achievements and cultural contributions in the fields of science, the arts, politics and education. At AFSA, we take great pride in the countless Black educators who hold leadership roles in our schools, our locals and our national union, and we are honored to highlight such outstanding members every year.
New York City school leader Dale Kelly says, “I can reel off the names of every teacher I had from kindergarten through fifth grade at P.S. 69” in Brooklyn. It never occurred to him that not a single one of them was Black in a community school where all the students were Black.
Kelly, executive vice president of the Council of School Supervisors & Administrators (CSA), AFSA Local 1, adds, “In fact, not one teacher looked like me all the way through middle school and high school.”
In the upper grades, he was sent out of the neighborhood to be part of the Special Progress (SP) program for the city’s brightest children—but again, there were no teachers of color. Years later, as a teacher and then a dean, he says, “I was consciously trying to hold a mirror up to those children who looked like me.”
This is not to say he was destined to become an educator. He began as an engineering major at City College, because his maternal grandfather was an engineer, and he liked the sound of it. Later, he transferred to Brooklyn College and majored in computer science, hoping to join his oldest brother Christopher in a computer business.
Born and raised in East Flatbush, he was the youngest of five children and the only one not born in Guyana. Dale’s mother Desiree held a full-time RN job working the night shift at Kings County Hospital Center. His stepfather, Colwin Kelly, was a public elementary school teacher by day and held a full-time security job by night.
“We were in the Vanderveer housing development, a pretty rough place,” Dale says. They all lived in a two-bedroom apartment, sometimes with two grandparents in residence, where his eldest sibling Jenny took on many of the child-rearing responsibilities. “The dynamics of family really shaped me,” he says. “The whole community was also very involved in everyone’s upbringing.”
Before Dale could embark on a computer business, he thought about his stepfather’s assertion that he would be a brilliant teacher. Almost as a lark, he went to the Community School District 18 superintendent’s office to inquire about teacher openings right there in his own neighborhood.
It turned out there was no math vacancy near home, but Roslyn Schley, principal of Winthrop Intermediate 232, met him and thought he’d do well in a program called the Professional Development Laboratory (PDL) that had master, adjunct and training teachers. As a training teacher, Dale covered for adjuncts who were shadowing master teachers.
“It was total immersion,” says Dale, “and it put so many resources in my toolbox.”
In 1997, after a year working in the PDL, Schley set Dale up as a math teacher at Winthrop, but he didn’t realize she had also set him on a path to school leadership.
She soon made him the Automate the Schools coordinator, the electronic data keeping system for New York City Public Schools, and then 8th grade dean. In no time, he also was a math coach and United Federation of Teachers chapter chair.
Within two years, he was appointed assistant principal at Gateway Intermediate School 364 in District 19, a smaller school in Starrett City, a very self-contained, close-knit community.
“This took me completely out of the classroom for the first time, into a school where I knew nobody—and it was a big transition,” he recalls.
It was a “setup” of sorts. Gateway Principal Dr. Dori Collazo-Baker intended to retire in two years and had identified him as her successor. Under District Superintendent Dr. Kathleen Cashin, Dale would hold the principal’s position for more than 10 years. Dr. Cashin recommended to him a simple but profound book, “The Four Agreements,” which held readers to: never make assumptions, never take things personally, always be impeccable with your word and always do your best.
“I took these things to heart, and they grounded me,” he says. “They spoke to integrity.”
He took on academic programming before he ever hired a programmer and sought to become a content expert in all subjects. “Sometimes, there’s a reluctance to take the principalship because there’s no formal training,” he says. “You learn on the job.” And he wanted to learn everything.
Gateway was a wraparound school involved in everything and partnering with everyone in the community six days a week. A notably gregarious person, Dale excelled at networking and sharing. Ordinarily, he says, “Principal is a very solitary position, a lonely job.” But he was so outgoing, he became known as “the Mayor of Starrett City.”
Fairly early in his tenure as principal, he accepted a colleague’s invitation to attend a District 19 union meeting, and he soon became the treasurer and a member of the District 19 executive board.
“Too often, people look at the union as their 911, somewhere to turn when they sense trouble,” he says. “I wanted people to get away from that.”
By 2016, Dale was thinking about new challenges. He applied to CSA to be a Supervisory Support Program (SSP) intervener to provide coaching to school leaders. A couple of years later, then-Executive Vice President Mark Cannizzaro (now AFSA secretary-treasurer) asked Dale to be CSA’s deputy grievance director, shadowing Director Bob Reich.
“I had the unique opportunity to learn from the master,” Dale said. “Bob was legendary.”
Dale learned the contract inside out, as well as all the nuances of the grievance team. In 2018, he became the director. Then, in 2021, Mark retired as president of CSA and the incomimg president Henry Rubio chose Dale to run on his ticket as his first vice president and, by 2024, executive vice president.
Collective bargaining and enforcement are at the top of Dale’s long list of responsibilities. He enjoys negotiation and contract fulfillment because these “affect each and every union member.”
“I am charged with overseeing work of titles I’ve never held,” he says. “And meeting regularly with Department of Education officials and interfacing with elected officials.”
During down time, Dale and his wife Erica, an elementary school principal, focus on having fun with their 14-year-old daughter Paige. Dale’s elder daughter Taylor is in her twenties, on her own and a registered nurse, “just like her grandmother.” They enjoy Broadway shows, skiing trips and “chasing the sun” as much as possible with Paige.
Dale is a recipient of numerous awards. He most fondly recalls being part of the Cornell Union Leadership Institute through the AFL-CIO, “a powerful experience where I got to learn the ins and outs of being a true unionist.”
