What Is Making These Urbandale Kids Look So Amazed?

Webster Elementary Principal Greg Carenza wasn't thrilled about the haircut he got Friday morning. 

But he was a good sport about it.

With about 400 students in the watching and chanting "Mohawk, Mohawk," substitute teacher Carolyn Ryan buzzcut Carenza's hair.

All except about two inches across the top. 

"This will look bad," Carenza predicted beforehand. "There's nothing worse than a grown man, who has never been cool in his life, in a Mohawk."

But there he was, with a gelled-up ridge of about two inches of hair down the top of his head and about a quarter inch of stubble around it.

The haircut was Webster students' reward for raising more than $7,000 through their readathon fundraiser. The students had two weeks to ask their parents, grandparents, neighbors and other relatives to pledge money for the books they read during that period. 

Carenza said he promised to get a Mohawk if they reached their goal of $7,000. All the money will be spent on instructional materials, probably guided reading materials, to be used in the classrooms, he said.

When the public shaving was done, Carenza told the students he was very proud of how much money they raised.

He said he was surprised at how excited the students seemed to be about their principal getting a Mohawk.

"It's not the highlight of my career, but they gave their best effort, so I'm living up to my promise," he said.

However, he noted, he didn't make any promises about how long he would keep the Mohawk haircut. 

If his wife has anything to say about it — and she does — it may be gone by Monday, he said.