Uintah Elementary School, Salt Lake City

"It's about making the most out of those human connections. . . . I could be the custodian and have a blast."

Salt Lake City's Uintah Elementary Principal Brian Conley gets a violin lesson along with some of his students in this undated school photo.

Being a big kid has its advantages. Just ask Brian Conley.

He gets to take recorder and violin lessons, tag along on field trips and launch rockets from the playground. Well, that is when he isn't secretly cleaning out the faculty refrigerator no one else will touch or wiping down tables in the cafeteria.

It's all in a day's work for the Uintah Elementary principal.

When he needs a break, the 38-year-old administrator - known for the over-the-top Halloween costumes he dons for the school parade each year - bounds onto the basketball court.

"How often do you get to dunk on a third-grade girl," he jokingly boasts of his position. "I tell them, 'You bring it inside on Mr. Conley, you're going down.' "

Yes, this grown man - who is prone to putting pencils in his ears at boring meetings - leads about 600 Salt Lake City kids. And the students (he knows them all by name), faculty, staff and parents could not be happier.

"He's got a really loving, kind nature about him," says WenDee Ruson, whose fifth-grade autistic son, Marcus, attends the school. "He's always been readily available, and we feel so lucky."

Marilyn Rasmussen, a fourth-grade instructor who has taught for 25 years, knows a good principal when she sees one.

"He makes school fun. You want to be here," she says.

Playful antics aside, Conley is "a brilliant administrator," Rasmussen adds. "He has the ability to motivate, inspire and encourage us. And he does this with the students, too."

Even when they falter.

"My own son has been sent to the principal's office," says Conley, a single father of four boys. "And I wasn't the perfect student by any means. . . . But making mistakes is just about learning how to live life."

- Jessica Ravitz