A sign welcomes new teachers to the orientation.

TIFTON — The Tift County school system held a new employee orientation at Tift County High School on July 24.

All new employees took part in a variety of listening sessions during the event.

The system’s three newest school principals were also on hand at the high school.

Patsy Shivers, new principal at Len Lastinger Elementary School; Jennifer Howell, new principal at Matt Wilson Elementary School; and Willie Dean, principal at J.T. Reddick Elementary School, have spent the last month preparing for their new roles in the new school year.

“As a first year principal, I’m excited to get my staff and meet all of our kids,” said Howell. “We’ve got pre-K this year, so we’ll have pre-K through 5 in our building. I’m really excited to see all of them and for us to combine together as a family, as a unit in one school with one vision.”

Howell said that new teacher orientation helps give new employees the lay of the land and lets them get to know their support team.

Howell said that she is looking forward to implementing new directives, like making sure each student is reading on grade level.

“It’s really important to me to make that known in my school and support our teachers and kids, and making our parents aware of the goal that we have,” she said. “I’m looking forward to doing some interesting things with reading and trying to integrate that in our other content areas.”

Howell said that previous principals she worked under as a teacher and as an assistant principal inspired her to build strong relationships with teachers and kids and to let her staff know that she is there to support them.

“Especially as a new teacher, I knew that I could talk to my principal,” she said. “I could ask questions and know they were there for me. They were in the classroom with us, they were in the trenches with us and that means a lot to a new teacher.”

Howell said that principals understand the enormity of their position and she wants parents to know that every decision she makes is for the kids’ best interests.

“I wouldn’t make a decision that I wouldn’t consider for my own child,” she said. “We truly are making what we feel like are the best decisions for kids.”

Shivers is in a unique position in that she will be assuming the role of principal at the same school at which she was the assistant principal.

“It’s a great opportunity for me to continue what I helped create in the past six years,” she said. “Building those relationships with the students, continuing the community relationship with all the stakeholders, so I’m super excited about this opportunity.”

Shivers said that she feels her school already does a great job of setting people up for success.

“We all really take the opportunity to make everyone feel welcome,” Shivers said. “We have an open door policy. We encourage everybody to play an important role in the success of our school.”

Shivers said that she is looking forward to implementing a language lab at Len Lastinger.

“Our hope and our goal is for all of our students to be able to speak fluently,” she said. “They’ll start in kindergarten and they’ll have a language lab once a week every week for potentially six years. We’re super excited about that and of course continuing our STEM lab. Our STEM lab was huge last year.”

She said that the STEM lab was a collaborative effort between the school and the community, and she is looking forward to continuing that partnership.

Shivers said that she wants parents to have an open mind and to support what the school is doing.

“Their child’s well being, and that is socially, emotionally, academically, every part of that child is important to us just like it’s important to them, and we have to be a united front,” she said. “We have to work together, and that’s everybody.”

Dean, who said he was first inspired to become a principal while attending J.T. Reddick as a child, said he was excited to be joining the J.T. Reddick family.

“Those people over there at J.T. Reddick are just amazing.” he said. “They’re in the trenches every day pulling in the work.”

He said that the faculty and staff are the experts in the building and that it’s important for principals to listen to and build relationships with them.

“No one person has all the answers,” he said. “You have to make sure you’re including all stake holders.”

He said that even the kids can contribute answers and insight into how to solve problems and improve the school.

“You have to include all people,” Dean said. “Students, staff, community, to make it successful. We are JTR. Whatever it takes to make sure our kids are successful, we are all in for the T, and when I say “T” I’m talking about Tift County. We’re going to do whatever it takes to ensure our kids are on grade level by third grade. We’re going to make sure our kids are getting what they need.”

Dean said that he wants parents to come and have a conversation with their principal about their concerns.

“Parents need to understand that home and school are different,” he said. “We want it to be a safe place and it will be a safe place, but home rules and school rules have to be different.”

He said that the decisions they make and the rules they have are with all of the students in mind, and asked for parent support.