Resume

  Profile

A veteran educator with over 30 years of experience in the classroom, athletics, and administration, whose transformational, servant-leadership style has led to successful turnaround and continued high performance from students and staff.

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NC Liscensure areas

011   Superintendent

012   Principal K-12

113   Curriculum Specialist

100   English 9-12

Hobbies

Model Railroading

Traveling

Reading

History

Gardening/landscaping

Movies/Classic TV Programs

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EDUCATION

East Carolina University

Sept. 2008 – July 2010

Ed.S., Educational Administration & Supervision

National Board Certification

2004, 2014

Adolescent Young Adult/English Language Arts

Gardner Webb University

Aug. 1998 – May 2000

MA  School Administration K-12

Appalachian State University

Sept. 1990 – Dec. 1992

BS  English Secondary Education

Sandhills Community College

Sept. 1988-May 1990

AA Pre-Journalism

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  EXPERIENCE

West Iredell High School, Assistant Principal/Mentor

August 2023 to Present

Needs drive where I go, and away I went to my community high school which, after 32, years is the closest I've ever worked to my home. The high school where my three sons attendend needed a reboot to jolt them out of complacency and comfort. This a new administrative team--of which I was tasked to serve as a mentor to the principal and assistant principal of curriculum and instruction--set out to do. I implemented a new restroom policy on day one that decreased discipline incidents by 90%. A school that was averaging two to three fights a week for three years saw two minor disputes in the first semester (18 weeks). That dramatic drop continued throughout the year, with discipline complaints down by over 50% and a similar 50+% drop in in-school and out-of-school suspensions. Teacher and student moral increased exponentially, successes in athletics drove up community moral and support for the school, and attendance rates improved. Additionally, a school which had not conducted PLCs (Professional Learning Communities) for several years moved to weekly data-driven PLCs with content coaches and school administration, and this change was met with positive feedback. I designed a new classroom walk-through tool based on Webb's Depth of Knowledge, expected daily objectives and standards to be visible in the front of the room, and teachers to provide constant feedback to instructional coaches and administration on their needs, what was working, what needed tweaking, and what needed to be abandoned.  In short, a new West Iredell High School is emerging from the shell of being consistently inconsistent, and students, staff, parents/guardians, the community, and other schools inside and outside of the district are noticing and asking how we made this change so rapidly.

  Statesville High School, English Teacher/Mentor

August 2022 - 2023

I made a return to the classroom at a high needs, Title I school in order to prove that what I have preached for years as an administrator, I could still put into practice with a  high level of success. The results were positive and the experience was invaluable. Despite EVAAS data that projected nearly 88% failure on the state's end-of-course examination in the fall of 2022, all but three of my students passed the exam. What I feel was more important, their reading levels jumped exponentially from the 500-600 lexile levels as high school sophomores to the 1100-1300 lexile levels. Additionally, I got the school's historic yearbook, The Trail, back on track by exceeding all deadlines, operating in the black the entire year, and increasing book sales. In short, this visit back to the classroom in at a time I had planned on retiring recharged, re-invigorated, refilled, and relit my love and passion for education as both a classroom teacher and school administrator.

North Lincoln High School, Assistant Principal/Principal

November 2014 to 2022

As a member of North Lincoln High School’s administration for six years, I have served as both an interim principal on multiple occasions and assistant principal. We exceeded growth in 13-14 and in 17-18, and met growth in 18-19, falling just short of an overall “A” grade.  The other four years our high school met growth.  I worked alongside the principal to develop and deploy a financial plan that brought the school form being in debt by almost $20,000 to our present financial stability of over $150,000 in all school accounts. During this time, North Lincoln High School has led the way for Lincoln County Schools by establishing an academic profile that includes over 72% of our student taking honors classes, expanding our offerings and increasing enrollment in Advance Placement classes, and continuing to meet the needs of all of our subgroups. I personally led professional development with the school’s English Department to improved reading comprehension and writing skills. This resulted in exemplary scores on the English II EOC and on English NCFEs. Additional increases in the ACT have been annual. By hiring a new biology teacher and working closely with that department, our Biology scores jumped nearly 16 points. North Lincoln High received a letter grade of a B for the 2017-2018 school year and also finished fourth in athletics for all 2A schools in North Carolina. I have introduced and maintain the concept and practices of Professional Learning Communities in each department, introduced and expanded on the use of Google Docs, introduced a Winter School at the start of the second semester to catch up seniors who were short of graduating with their cohort, expanded the use of Apex Online learning for students to recover credit or for content instruction/mastery, created and implemented a new course: Success 101, that enables  students to recover credits during the school day through the use of Apex Online, revised teacher observation data collection of Rigor Walk data, and discipline data. I have oversaw all areas of the school, from facilities, busing, discipline, master schedule creation, guidance, auxiliary services, safety and safety plans, curriculum and instruction, to PTO, booster, school finance, and marketing of the school. I have also worked with our coaching staff and club advisors to partner with our middle school and elementary schools to offer tutoring, book bags for learning, role modeling, and end of course test preparation. We have partnered with several key local businesses to increase revenue into our athletic programs to revitalize or overhaul all athletic fields and equip teams, purchase containers for band and theater arts for storage, to go from zero Chrome Book carts to ten in three years. This has resulted in over 400 more computers for daily use and online testing. Additionally, I attended the annual law symposium for superintendents in Chapel Hill each fall, as well as regional administrative meetings. Each event has allowed me to build and strengthen my networks for connections at the superintendent and deputy superintendent levels. Oversaw IEP, 504, and EL divisions.

Newton-Conover City Schools District Middle School and High School Instructional Specialist  August 2008 – November 2014

English teacher in 2008 and tasked with turning around the school’s English Department, specifically the English II curriculum, where only 41% of students were passing the state writing test. This was the third and last year of the school’s probation, and void of improved performance, they would be targeted for a state turnaround team. I implemented a staff development on writing Day One, laying the framework for writing expectations in all classes and for all students. I did further PLCs in departments, focusing mainly on the language arts department. At the end of the school year, when results were released, Newton-Conover had experienced one of the largest gains in writing, going from 41 to 78% proficient in ten months. The growth continued each year, topping out at 84% proficient by the time the writing assessment was dropped three years later. This increase in writing scores resulted in increases across the board, with math, science, and history scores rising, AP course enrollment increasing, student dropout rate decreasing, rises in graduation rate and cohort rate, and multiple state championships in various sports. In addition, teacher retention was at an all-time high, and discipline at a low. Additionally, I partnered with the local newspaper to restart the high school newspaper after nearly twenty years. I secured a $5000 grant from Walmart and physical donations from Lowes of Hickory. One year after this, the Newton-Conover High School newspaper had gained state-wide notoriety by capturing a dozen individual and staff awards. The newspaper served a critical role of marketing the high school to the surrounding communities, not only through publishing successes at the school and highlighting academic and athletic prowess, but it was also a platform for professional advertising, all done in-house by the students.

As the middle and high school instructional specialist, I served at the district office level to introduce and provide PLCs to middle and high school staffs. Working with the middle and high school administrations, topics ranged from classroom management, data collection and analysis, data walls, Positive Behavior Interventions and Support, Multi-Tiered Structures of Support, Common Core rollout, NC Falcon, use of Anchor Papers in the writing curriculum, writing instruction using the four-color pen approach, analysis of literature in writing, to stress management, enjoying your weekend, putting family first, managing the burdens of student life issues, and smiling more.  I presented and co-presented at local, regional, and state ASCD Conventions with topics on “I Have an App for That,” “Writing with a Pen and Pencil,” among others. Additionally, I attended regional Middle and High School meetings in place the deputy superintendent. Position dissolved with deep education cuts of 2011-2013.

State and National Writing Assessor, Pearson Prentice Hall Testing May 1998 – June 2014

While serving in my regular education positions, I additionally worked to score state writing tests, SAT and ACT writing tests, and College/University Entrance Essays. I conducted local, regional, and state workshops on writing.

South Iredell High School,  Interim Principal/Assistant Principal/English Teacher Aug. 1995 – June 2008

Served final year as assistant principal of administration in charge of facilities, 24 buses, classified staff, custodial operations, duty rosters, safety plan, capital outlay committee chair, 9-12 discipline, English/Spanish/World History curriculums

Served first 11 years as English teacher and Department Chair. Raised English scores to highest in five high school district, increased AP enrollment by 50% in AP English Literature and Composition, held a 90% passing rate for students on AP Exam.

North Stokes Jr./Sr. High School Aug. 1993 – June 1995

Spanish and English teacher.

Served as foreign language department chair, taught Spanish I, II, and III, women’s varsity basketball coach

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Professional and Personal References Available