A principal of principle

Educator plans to instill strong values at Islamic school

By Robin Roenker - SPECIAL TO THE HERALD-LEADER

Atop a white step stool, a diminutive Abdul-Munim S. Jitmoud preps students lined up for a procession to Lexington Universal Academy's back-to-school rally. As LUA's new principal, it's Jitmoud's first day, too, though you can't tell it.

He's at ease in his new surroundings, teasing the eighth-graders at the back of the line.

"Wake up, eighth grade," he calls, and suddenly the responses from the end of the hallway grow louder.

The school's 92 students, from kindergarten through eighth grade, recite in Arabic and English as they march through the school's main corridor and out to its back lawn, carrying signs, international flags and a rainbow of colored flowers.

Once they are reassembled, a representative from each grade brings their flowers together in a common vase.

"You see, it's starting to be more beautiful because of the variety of flowers. You can see the beauty within the diversity," Jitmoud says, as the bouquet comes together.

Unity through diversity: It's a theme the new principal plans to emphasize throughout the year at Lexington Universal Academy, an Islamic School on Nicholasville Road entering its fifth year.

To drive home the point during the rally, Jitmoud asks the students to imagine how boring the world would be if everyone looked like him. He caught several of them laughing, imagining a world full of "little Asian men," he said.

"God makes everyone so beautiful in different ways," he said. "That's why we say unity in diversity."

A native of Thailand and a lifelong Muslim, Jitmoud first came to the United States in the early 1970s to attend the University of South Florida. After receiving his bachelor's degree in geography there, he went on to pursue master's and doctoral degrees in education and education administration at Truman State University in Missouri and at Ball State University in Indiana.

It was at Truman State University that Jitmoud met Missouri native Linda Kolocotronis, who later converted to Islam. They have been married for 26 years and have six sons.

After Jitmoud received his doctorate in 1983, he led and helped establish Islamic schools in Seattle, Kansas City, Bangkok and Milwaukee before Linda's allergies in Wisconsin led the couple to look for another place to call home last year.

At that time, LUA was seeking a new principal.

The couple moved to Lexington just last month with their two youngest sons, one a seventh-grader at Lexington Universal Academy, the other a freshman at Tates Creek High. Their oldest son lives in Spain with his wife and daughter; their other sons live elsewhere in the United States.

So far, the family is enjoying putting down roots in Lexington, Jitmoud said. And the school has been thrilled to have him, said Jenny Sutton-Amr, a mother of two students and a member of the school board who served on the school's principal recruitment committee.

"He has impressed everyone who has met him. The students love him, and he's already put his own personal stamp on the school," Sutton-Amr said, noting that, when Jitmoud visited the school last spring during his interview process, the entire student body paid rapt attention as he shared stories during the noon prayer service.

"Afterward, there was a circle of kids following him around the rest of the day," Sutton-Amr recalled.

Islamic education

Jitmoud has set high goals for the school, which has grown in attendance and expanded a grade level each year since it opened with just grades kindergarten through four in 2002. This is the first year the school has included an eighth grade; it does not plan to expand beyond the middle school level. Tuition is currently $3,700 a year for one child.

The school follows the state curriculum and also includes religious instruction and Arabic language instruction for all of its students. Jitmoud aims, he said, to keep the school's curriculum challenging, on par with an international curriculum like that of Taiwan or Japan, especially in math and science.

Drawing on the native backgrounds of its families and staff -- who hail from 16 different countries from Algeria and Brazil to Jordan, Nicaragua and Pakistan -- the school celebrates is international cultural flavor as it strives to create a truly "universal" atmosphere, Jitmoud said.