Saturday's Internet Edition, May 17, 2008.
|
“Absolutely,” Hill replied when asked if she had ambitions to become a principal. “That’s my next goal. I would like to become a principal in the near future — or whenever Davidson County sees fit.”
What if another county “saw fit”?
“I would like to be a principal someday in Davidson County,” Hill reaffirmed. “I’m loyal to Davidson County Schools. I don’t plan to go anywhere else.”
When asked to explain her loyalty to Davidson County Schools, Hill responded, “Davidson County is my home. When you go to these larger school systems, you lose a lot of personalization within the school and within the system. If I had a need today, I could pick up the phone and call Dr. [Fred] Mock [superintendant of Davidson County Schools] and, if I didn’t get him right away — I know that I would speak to him personally before the end of the day.”
While growing up in Thomasville and attending Thomasville High School, the future educator had other ideas for a career.
“I always fared well at math, but I think I talked myself out of being a teacher,” Hill said. “I must have thought accounting would be something that I’d enjoy doing — and that it would pay a little bit better than teaching.”
The Thomasville native earned her accounting degree at UNC-Greensboro, but once she got into the business, Hill realized that it was not the way she wanted to spend her entire career. After talking things over with her husband, Rick Hill, she returned to UNCG and took the courses required for her to get into teaching.
There she found her niche. At Tyro Middle School, Hill taught seventh graders in math and science for 10 years. After a year of teaching seventh-grade math exclusively, Hill switched to eighth grade algebra for five more years. By then, Evan Myers, her original principal at Tyro, had moved on to Ledford Middle.
“I was ready for a change, again,” Hill remembered of how she felt after 16 years of teaching.”I had some ideas and felt like I could help a whole lot more kids as an assistant principal, than I had been doing as a teacher.
Myers obviously felt the same way because he hired Hill to that position at Ledford. And he has not regretted it in the four years she has been there.
“Debbie does a wonderful job,” Myers said. “She’s involved in all facets of the school. It wasn’t like that when I was an assistant principal in the ‘80s. Back then we dealt with the three Bs: books, butts and buses. An assistant principal today has got to be involved in the leadership team.”
Hill realizes that being involved in the leadership team of a school means leading teachers as well as students.
“It’s not always pleasant, but I feel like I’m not far enough removed from the classroom that I can’t see the perspective of what’s going on with that teacher,” Hill said. “If there are issues, I try to handle them in an appropriate manner — and not lose focus of their perspective, as I try to get them to understand my perspective.”
When it comes to disciplining students, Hill said, “I try to maintain their dignity. It doesn’t really matter what a child has done; they’re still children. I try to help them turn their mistakes into learning experiences.”
Hill’s philosophy in dealing with teachers and students made quite an impression with Myers. The Ledford Middle principal handed Hill an application for Assistant Principal of the Year honors and asked her to fill it out. The application, prepared by the National Association of Secondary School Principals, asked Hill to write three reflections of different aspects of her job, She followed Myers’ request and won the award.
“At this point, I’m feeling very overwhelmed,” Hill said of receiving the award. “I’m very honored and very excited.”
Meanwhile, Myers is proud to see his protege receive credit for a job well done.
“Debbie well deserves this recognition,” Myers said. “We work very closely together. She has the strong leadership ability that is necessary for someone to perform that job.”
Staff Writer Kevin Reid can be reached at 472-9500, ext. 230, or at reid@tvilletimes.com.