Students at J.Z. George High School are in their first full week of classes and are getting back into the swing of school. As doors opened on Wednesday, Aug. 7, students were met with shiny floors, clean classrooms, and positive affirmations as they began each day.
They also saw a change in leadership. Nathan Moncrief, the former elementary principal at Carroll Academy, joined J.Z. George High School as the new assistant principal and athletic director. Moncrief also spent time at Kirk Academy before joining Carroll Academy.
Moncrief replaces Alex Rawls who resigned back in December.
Moncrief will be one of the many new faces at J.Z. George. Green said a new task is getting all of her new staff introduced to the way things run at J.Z. George.
There is also a new head of security. The Carroll County School Board hired Brad Carver as Head of Security, replacing Anjuan Brown. Carver, the former warden of the Grenada County Jail, comes to the district with the law enforcement experience the school board of trustees were seeking.
“We’ve been working handicapped; we’ve been without resources that we needed and it’s hard, but now we’re finally getting what we need,” Green said.
She said the Carroll County School Board’s announcement that there will be a new superintendent in January set off a wave of uncertainty even before the school year ended through students and teachers alike. It resulted in a high turnover in teachers and students will see new faces when they return. She said there are still two positions that have to be filled before the start of the year, but most of the positions that became vacant after the announcement have been filled.
“They didn’t know what was going to happen in January,” she said. But, in the midst of it all, her goal is to preserve through and create an atmosphere that’s welcoming for her teachers and staff and her students.
“I want to create a new school culture,” Green said. One new thing that students now hear is positive affirmations in the morning when morning announcements are read.
“I want to make that a part of our day and I want to still celebrate our teachers and students,” she said, adding that they have a parade through the halls for the students and teachers of the month. Another thing she wants to implement is improving literacy school wide.
“We’re going to have a Book Club this year for high school and junior high school students. We have avid readers who love to read and we want them to shine,” she said. “My goal is that I want one of them to create their own children’s book. It doesn’t have to be a children’s book, though.”
Also, there will be a new Literacy Coach to help teachers in sixth through eighth grades. “He’s also going to teach too but it’ll be a benefit for the students in sixth through eighth and the teachers,” she said. Another new change junior high students will see is a change in their schedule.
“Junior High now has seven periods and High School will have eight,” Green said. She said the focus is on improving their career and college readiness and to keep growing academically.
“We have to find a way to keep the top teachers here with us and to have the right teachers in right places,” she said.
Green said the main thing is keeping her students and teachers encouraged through this rough patch.
“They [the students] know. They hear the rumors and the negative things that are going on. They hear it and they read it, they know,” Green said. She said knowing this, it may be hard for students to stay motivated but they’re finding ways to keep everyone focused on the goal at hand – student’s progressing, growing and moving up with the ultimate goal of graduation in mind.
She said with students, teachers have to fight through the summer lull. “We have to get them regulated back in and keep down chaos,” she said. “We have to remember why we’re here and why we’re doing this. We have to keep standing. It’s just like in bowling. When you throw the ball down, sometimes all of the pins aren’t knocked down, some are still standing. We have to be like those pins and keep standing,” she said.
