Inside the Office

“Since I was little, I knew I wanted to be a principal. I enjoyed the opportunity to connect with students in my homeroom and their families. I liked the idea of connecting with more students, bigger than just my homeroom, and supporting our teachers at Garfield [Elementary]. I wanted to have a bigger impact. It allowed me to get to know more families in our community and have more of a leadership role, so when [the job] opened up, I thought I would give it a try and see if it was meant to be. It just all fell correctly, and I was able to take on this role. I love it because it has given me what I envisioned— stronger connections with more families and more diverse people in our community. It allowed me to get to know more students from a more global perspective than just 20 in my homeroom. My favorite thing about being a teacher was building relationships with my students and getting to know them, not only as learners but just as kids; understanding what they like, what they fear, what motivates them, and helping support them.

I did my undergraduate through Kansas State University to receive my degree in Elementary Education. Then I went on to Fort Hays State University to get my Master’s degree in Administrative Leadership— that's a two-year program. I completed mine in a year though because it was during COVID and maternity leave, so I had the ability to do some extra classes at home. Once completing that I did more leadership support under [previous principal Sarah] Armstrong. She let me shadow her a couple of times— I would handle behavior things. That gave me some authentic practice before I moved into the position. I'm also our librarian at Garfield. Since I'm a librarian too, my first two hours of every day are spent in the library. And so I get to see kids in their homeroom terms and see what they like to read and what makes them laugh. Now I get to know 171 kids, and I get to develop relationships with them, and I enjoy that.

It has been really unique [being a principal where I used to teach]. It was helpful to have strong relationships created with staff, students and families. I was lucky to have knowledge of the schedule, the culture of our building, the routines and expectations that we have for our GES Jr. Bengals. I was thankful to work alongside and serve the people who had supported me in becoming the educator I was. We had done so many great things as a staff to create schedules that were best for our learners. I made a conscious decision to come in and try not to change too many things as a first year principal unless I heard from staff that it would be beneficial for all of us.”