Perspective | Our principals are boots-on-the-ground kind of people

Beckie Spears is the principal of Wilkesboro Elementary School in the Wilkes County Schools. She is the 2024 Wells Fargo North Carolina Principal of the Year. Here she shares her reflections following Hurricane Helene.

October is prime time in the western North Carolina mountains. 

Sunny yellow poplars and beeches are already showing themselves, and the maples and oaks still standing are blushing red. From tallest ridge to lowest valley, autumn reveals nature’s beautiful kaleidoscope in full glory.

But this October, there’s reddish-brown mud clogging the kaleidoscope. Flood waters and debris, washed away roads, homes, people, and towns, and the fallen trees that fill the landscape remind us of all that was lost in September. 

October is also National Principals Month, and today principals in northwest and western North Carolina are standing in muddy boots, doing whatever is needed to hold their schools and their communities together. 

Principals are always boots-on-the-ground kind of people, and while we don’t usually engage in search and rescue, we spend every day thinking about keeping our students and staff safe. This October, that means providing critical infrastructure and support to emergency services while we run chainsaws and generators, transform schools into shelters, and try to account for our beloved students and staff.

When I first spoke with Wells Fargo NC Western Region Principal of the Year Phil Rogers, his voice was strong, earnest, and optimistic as he described endless days of running a shelter at R-S Central High School in Rutherford County, delivering meals, removing fallen trees, searching for students, and collaborating with local, state, and federal agencies and law enforcement. Phil’s stories of suffering and loss were punctuated with overwhelming gratitude for the community coming together and strangers showing up to help. He has served this town his entire life, and Phil was focused on getting students back in school. He’s also helping transition a shelter to a nearby church.

Phil’s students got back to school last Wednesday, and he said it was the best day ever.

I also spoke with Wells Fargo NC Charter School Principal of the Year Dr. Sarena Fuller, principal of ArtSpace Charter School in Swannanoa in Buncombe County. Her school community was hit hard, and Sarena shared heartbreaking stories of staff traveling to check on students, finding only debris where homes once stood. Without power or cell service, it took seven agonizing days to locate all of her students, and Sarena expressed gratitude to the NCDPI Office of Charter Schools for their help. Her staff has been working at the Harrah’s Cherokee Center in Asheville to provide connection and engagement for children while parents meet with FEMA agents. She’s organized a visit from Savannah School for the Arts to bring supplies and is working to build funds to put her school campus back together. Sarena’s voice was strong, steady, and focused as she described feeling the support from people across North Carolina.

Phil and Sarena are fortunate because they have found all their students and staff. Other principals, many in isolated areas that don’t yet have access, power, water, or medical care are mourning the loss of beloved community members. 

For most principals, the school community of students, parents, and staff feels like an extension of the principal’s own family. Being a principal is about meeting people where they are and making a path to help them be where they can be. It is about inspiring others to work for dreams they have not yet held in their hands. And, today in western North Carolina, it’s also about responding to the immediate needs of our communities as we start the complex work of restoring and healing our extended family.

In recent years, the challenges and corresponding needs have drastically changed our school communities. Hurricane Helene is the most recent example, but loss and grief are everywhere, leaving hurt and isolation in its wake.  

Fortunately, principals are adaptable, critical thinkers with deep experience in creating new ways of doing things. 

In McDowell County, principals at Old Fort Elementary and Pleasant Hill Elementary are creatively finding space for two schools in one building. Everywhere in the west, principals are finding the way forward, knowing that with each small success there is still massive work ahead.  

Being a public school principal is not a ‘job.’  It’s a way of life — a personal responsibility to a whole community — and it is hard to define where the job begins and ends. We should cherish our North Carolina principals, who tirelessly put the needs of other families before their own, and we should demonstrate our care with action.  

This October, I encourage you to find a way to support the important work principals do:

• Thank your local public school principals. Kind words of appreciation are valuable. 
• Advocate for principals and public education with your neighbors and communities. 
• Sign up to volunteer and donate to your local public schools. 
• Find a way to support the larger relief efforts in western North Carolina.
• Most importantly, learn about the candidates for our upcoming elections and learn about the jobs of each office.

In just four short weeks, North Carolina will elect a new governor, a superintendent of public instruction, and legislators. These elected leaders make important decisions about how schools in North Carolina are supported and funded, and your vote will make an impact on our schools.  

There are many miles between Raleigh and western North Carolina, but the North Carolina State Board of Education and Superintendent Catherine Truitt know immediate action is needed for our western communities. Superintendent Truitt worked with NCDPI to advocate for immediate relief from the General Assembly to help and support the west. 

There will be additional requests for aid moving forward. Tell your elected leaders that these needs are urgent and worthy of their time, attention, and resources.  

I have spent my whole life in the foothills of North Carolina. Wilkes County fared well compared to our neighbors. Still, I got emotional greeting students, families, and staff as they returned to school a week after Hurricane Helene repainted our world. The daily school ritual is interrupted for so many, and that hurt is bone deep. There is still beauty here in the western mountains, and beauty in the schools and communities that call them home.  

Our local public schools have always been a place of refuge and the hub for rural communities. And now in a time of historic need, our local public schools will be the foundation of how our western communities will be rebuilt. 

And standing there in muddy boots will be a school principal, leading with bravery, empathy, adaptability, and hope.