During Madalinski's five years at the helm, the school has raised its Academic Performance Index scores. In the 2003-04 school year scores leaped 43 points--the largest gain in the Milpitas Unified School District for that year. This jump also propelled the school onto the California Department of Education's list of " middle schools to watch" in 2005. Next month, the school will be recognized as a 2005 California Distinguished School.

Rancho's staff says the school's strides began with Madalinski's dynamic leadership and because of his efforts, Assistant Principal Leticia Villa-Gascon and counselor Jennifer Hutchinson nominated him for the California Middle School Administrators' 2005 Middle School Principal of the Year award. The award honors 18 California middle school principals and Madalinski was one of those recognized. From those 18 winners, one principal is selected as California middle school principal of the year. That individual was Madalinski.

Villa-Gascon and Hutchinson nominated Madalinski because "he supports his teachers through professional development, serves as a role model to the students, manages to see the positive in everyone whether staff or student, and was integral in helping Rancho shed its bad reputation."

Villa-Gascon, one of Madalinski's many recent hires, said she had only heard negative things about Rancho when she was an elementary school administrator in the district. A few years ago Rancho had the reputation of a rough school. It was considered not as academically rigorous as Milpitas' other middle school, Russell. Many parents, she says, wanted to send their children to Russell.

When she was hired at Rancho several years ago, Villa-Gascon says she found a staff dedicated to students. In just a few years, the school has shed its negative image, staff morale is high, and more parents are choosing Rancho.

"There's a family here among the staff and students and Mike's created that," Villa-Gascon says.

Madalinski, however, credits his teachers with the school's turnaround. He says he knows firsthand how one teacher can make a difference in a young person's life.

Madalinski's mentor was his high school football coach in the small farming town of Morenci, Mich. Madalinski spent his time before and after school helping around the farm--driving a tractor, plowing, and feeding pigs and chickens. When Madalinski met his football coach, he began to consider a career in education.

"He was sort of a surrogate dad," Madalinski says. At his coach's suggestion, Madalinski became a camp director. "I thought, 'This is kind of cool.' I liked working with kids."

Becoming an educator

Madalinski studied education at Michigan State University. He taught middle school in Flint, Mich. and Woodstock, Ill. before heading west to California in 1984. Madalinski taught at several elementary and high schools in the Bellflower Unified School District in Southern California before taking the reins as principal for the alternative school, Somerset High School.

"At that time in my life I was ready for that change. I was ready to take on the challenge," says Madalinski about going from teacher to administrator.

Being an administrator meant wearing more hats. Madalinski not only had to balance the interests of parents and students, he had to report to the district and manage a staff. The work rarely ended even when the school year was over.

Over time, Madalinski realized being an administrator at the middle school level was where he wanted to be. When he was offered the position as Rancho's principal, he accepted and moved to Northern California.

Middle schoolers, he says, have one foot in adulthood and one foot in childhood and they change from day to day. "There's never a dull moment," he says.

Rancho's students--particularly the male students--have become fond of Madalinski, Villa-Gascon says. A handful of boys often wait for Madalinski in the morning, walk around campus with him at lunch and sometimes visit with him after school.

The principal has become for these students what Madalinski's coach was to him: a father figure. "He's like their best friend. He really tends to reach those students," Villa-Gascon says.

Many of the boys who spend time with Madalinski are also students in his advisory class. Madalinski introduced the advisory program three years ago so students could develop a stronger connection to a single teacher. The concept was developed to promote self-esteem and stretch the students' thinking.

Madalinski, Villa-Gascon and every Rancho teacher has an advisory of 20 to 25 students. The students meet with their advisors four days a week for 20 minutes and discuss various topics of interest.

Many advisories are mixed gender, but because of Rancho's larger male population, Madalinski volunteered to have an all-male advisory. These boys are with Madalinski through their seventh- and eighth-grade years and have developed a sense of ease around him.

"We talk about everything," student Jimmy Bristoll says. "Girls. Life."

Classmate Dave Vrahel says he likes his advisory because it helps the students get to know Madalinski as a teacher, not just as a principal. However, for Vrahel, Madalinski's claim to fame is his intimate knowledge of middle school grips. "He knows all our handshakes," Vrahel says.

Not only does he know the boys' handshakes, but teacher JoAnn Basnight says he learns every child's name. Basnight, a special day class teacher, remembers when Madalinski became principal in 1999. By October of his first year, Madalinski knew every student by name, she says.

She also saw an evolution in his style and mannerisms. At first he was a quiet observer of the school's culture, she says. Then he revealed a leadership style based on teamwork. "He made us a real cohesive group," Basnight says. "He just took the school to another level."

During those first years, Basnight also witnessed nearly two-thirds of the teachers move out of the area or retire. As a new administrator, Madalinski hired 18 new teachers over a three-year period.

Many of the new teachers are young, energetic and serve as role models for the middle school students.

"I have a real commitment to hiring teachers who look like the kids," Madalinski says. In keeping with that goal, he has hired individuals of color, with more of an emphasis on male teachers. Rancho's population has more boys than girls and is ethnically diverse. One-third of the school's population is learning English as a second language.

Beyond the books

Eighth-grade U.S. history and Spanish teacher Luis Lopez is one of Madalinski's hires. Lopez has taken on the role of helping Spanish-speaking parents become proactive in their children's education.

Lopez organizes several events, including a monthly potluck for the Latino parents. The simple act of bringing students, parents and teachers together has formed a stronger Latino community at Rancho, the teachers say.

During the potluck, school becomes less of a mystery for the Spanish-speaking parents, who may be new to the American school system. The parents not only get to meet their children's teachers but can watch how their children interact with teachers and administrators.

Lopez says helping the Latino students and their parents was merely an extension of his job. Madalinski, however, sees Lopez's efforts as one of the reasons Rancho is thriving. He nominated Lopez for the 2005 KTVU Sylvan Learning Center Best Educator Award, and Lopez won.

Lopez says he is honored to be recognized throughout the Bay Area but is especially touched that Madalinski took the time out of his busy day to nominate him. "Just being nominated is an award," Lopez says.

Madalinski has also taken the time to nominate Basnight and eighth-grade language arts teacher Melina Johnson for awards.

He encourages friendships among staff and will often substitute teach a class so his teachers can observe other classrooms. This way, the teachers can learn from each other, which they could normally not do during school days. Madalinski also recognizes teachers at the school by honoring them as "Teacher of the Week."

"He's always talking positively about everyone," Lopez says. "He definitely sees those things and he wants us to see those things."

The ability to see the positive does not detract from Madalinski's ability to handle difficult issues. When the principal is critical, he offers constructive criticism, Lopez says. However, when dealing with larger issues, such as school budget cuts, Madalinski remains loyal to his staff. Since a parcel tax measure failed in March, the school will have to cut one teacher from its staff and possibly cut the guidance counselor position, too.

"There's going to be quite a few cuts and a bumping game throughout the district. We don't know what's going to happen but morale is high," Villa-Gascon says.

Madalinski is fighting to keep Rancho's only counselor, Hutchinson, whose been with the school since 1995.

Even through these difficult budgetary times the district is celebrating its successes. When Rancho was awarded the "school to watch" award in San Diego, Madalinski opened the invitation to whoever wanted to attend. On March 17, 21 Rancho administration and staff members attended the awards ceremony. Now the group is gearing up to attend the California Distinguished Schools awards banquet at the Disneyland Hotel on May 20.

For teacher Johnson, winning the awards is about more than recognition. "It sort of makes you want to step up your game," says Johnson, who is also a Rancho alumna. Now, Johnson and her colleagues believe they can make Rancho even better.

Looking at the family environment and academic achievements Madalinski has helped implement in just five short years, Basnight says, "Mike's the backbone. He had a vision and I think he has."

In turn, however, Madalinski says he's proud to have the hardest-working teachers he's met in his career with him at Rancho. "I don't think I've done anything singularly," he says. "You can't dictate change. It's got to be something everyone wants."