At a Glance:
● Member of the second cohort of the Mississippi Principal Corps program
● Principal of Pearl Highschool in Pearl
● The graduation rate at PHS is one of the highest graduation rates in the state under Chism’s leadership
What made you decide to go into education?
I was in engineering for 4 years at the University of Florida, and I actually switched out of it my senior year. We were in the field and I just didn’t like it, I know that sounds crazy. I’m in a family of engineers and being an engineer was kind of like the thing I was supposed to do. I can tell you my dad is still not happy with that decision. So my degree was actually not in engineering, I just did four years of engineering. I think I’m nine hours away from being an environmental engineer. There are two reasons for that, and they’re two things that I really enjoyed doing while growing up. The first was athletics, baseball specifically, but I also played football, tennis and swam. The second thing I enjoyed was working with children. I used to give lessons to kids all the time for various sports. I jumped into education because of that.
How did your time in the Mississippi Principal Corps prepare you for your career? I could spend the next three hours on the answer to that question. We had a Principal Corp intern my first year at the school that I was teaching at in Hernando who connected me to Dr. McClelland. I was also pushed by my assistant principal at the time, who was a dear friend and mentor, to apply for the Mississippi Principal Corps. The principal corps prepared me for everything. I did an internship in Batesville at South Panola. I was placed in a 2nd and 3rd grade building a 4th and 5th grade building and I was placed in a middle school. So I was able to see things in South Panola and the miracles that those teachers performed with those kids that are in an almost 100% poverty district. I had never been in a district like that. It was an absolute joy to watch those teachers work there and learn from them. I can tell you the hands-on experience was a big piece of what prepared me. As an intern, I was placed in that district and they told me up front, that I wasn’t going to be an intern there. They told me I would act as an assistant principal there. They told me to get the whole idea of being an intern out of my head because they needed me to be an assistant principal and give them some extra help. So that’s what I was able to do. And everyone’s experience is different depending on where they went, but it was a wonderful experience. I would say the second reason why the Principal Corps prepared me for my career is because all of the professors that teach in the Principal Corps are all former administrators and superintendents, so they have that hands-on experience and knowledge. They’ve all done it and know what it’s like, they know what the time constraints are going to be, and they know the ins and outs. Even though education is always changing, they still had that hands-on experience. They were able to take the things we read in a book and make them practical for us. That’s what really helped me personally. To this day, I can email, text, or call those professors if I bump into an issue. They’re all very open to help even though I’m ten years out of the program. The best thing I’ve ever done in my educational career was being a part of the Mississippi Principal Corps.
What were some things you wanted to accomplish when you became principal of Pearl High School?
I think the first thing I learned quickly is that the first thing I needed to accomplish was to survive. Going from a middle school with 600 kids to a high school with 1,200 kids is a big difference. A 6A school is like running a small city. Survival was first and foremost. When I got here there were a few things I wanted to accomplish with the staff. A lot of this is staff led, and the first thing I asked was is there a vision somewhere. It took us about 6 months to create a vision, and I didn’t create it – the teachers created it. That’s something that i’m really proud of and it’s something that we still use today. That really sets the tone and dictates the culture in the building. One of the things I’m very proud of is the culture of excellence we have with our teachers. That starts with the vision they created. The other thing that I’m really proud of is the culture of getting better or improvement. My dad had a stroke several years ago, and I happened to be sitting at UMC, which is a teaching hospital, and I watched all of these doctors come in with all of their students while they’re working on my dad. They’re looking at his scans and talking to him and asking questions and for me, as an educator, I’m sitting back and going, why don’t we do that? So that’s something we implemented here and I implemented it slowly but it’s
something that I’m really proud of. Almost every observation I go into, I take four or five teachers with me. It is a culture of getting better. This is not picking apart the teacher we’re observing. I ask three questions when we leave the observation: what did you see that you liked, what did you see that if you were the teacher you might have changed, and did you see anything you can take to your classroom? Sometimes those discussions can last 5 minutes and sometimes they can last 45 minutes. It’s really a rich conversation for me, because i’m not an expert in history. But if I take an expert in history with me to a history classroom, then it makes me better as an administrator as well. That’s another thing that I’m really proud of. The third thing that hits my heart more than anything is our change in special education. When we walked in the door here we had a 28% graduation rate for special education students which is about the state average. Again, I don’t want to take credit for this, this is the department. I just layed out the things that I wanted to accomplish. For example, I want to see that when the kids walked in every morning they had a schedule. They know who they’re going to, what they’re going to and what they’re doing every single day. We have changed and warped this over the past several years. Now we have one of the highest special education graduation rates in the state. And it’s their hard work, it was their ideas and is throwing out what we were doing and starting from scratch. Special education kids get left behind in many places and sometimes it’s the system itself. So being able to watch those kids walk across the stage, those moments are what make it all worth it. All three of those things, those are what I wanted to accomplish. They are important to me.
What have you found most meaningful in your career? Relationships. That’s what matters the most. Relationships with teachers, kids and parents. You get that Facebook message ten years later of somebody that you impacted that you didn’t realize you impacted so much. Some of the things I do, or don’t do sometimes, make a difference. I go out and greet kids every morning when they come in, and I was doing that for me to get to know the kids better. When I miss a morning, there are going to be kids that come and find me and say “where were you this morning?” For me what’s most meaningful are the relationships that you build. Life is about relationships. It’s not about money, cars or houses, it’s about the people you can impact over the course of your life.
Do you have any advice for students who are currently in the Mississippi Principal Corps? I think the one thing they impressed upon us that I didn’t pay attention to enough was that time is your greatest resource. I was drowning the first couple of years at Pearl High School. You’re supposed to know everything and you don’t. What are the most important things here? Make sure that you prioritize your time. One thing that I don’t do a good job with is I don’t prioritize my family enough. The job takes 60, 70, sometimes 80 hours some weeks and that’s part of it to offer the things we offer here. That’s every athletic and fine arts event. We offer everything. And we have to be at those things. So pay very close attention to time, because the good lord isn’t making anymore of it. Don’t waste the time that you have.
Is there anything you would like to add?
I am so grateful for the people at the University of Mississippi. It’s not just a program, it’s about people and those relationships you build. I am ever grateful for all of the time they spend with us and all of the things they have done for us. Those folks mean a lot to me, my family and to all of the members that have been in the program. I can’t express to you how thankful we are for that program. They’re putting out wonderful administrators all across the state that have an intimate knowledge of what it’s like to be an administrator before they actually step in to be one. I am eternally grateful.
