One has been a principal for eight years. The other is being promoted to principal next year. And the third has been her school office’s “traffic manager” for the past 12 years.
They are among the recipients of the Enterprise-Journal’s 2023 Education Awards: Best Principal Lakya Washington of Summit Elementary School, Best Assistant Principal April Huff of North Pike Upper Elementary School, and Best School Secretary Leola Givens of South Pike Junior High School.
LAKYA WASHINGTON
“I’m surprised. I’m almost speechless,” Washington said after learning she was voted Best Principal on the newspaper’s website. “I just know that so many people are doing great things, and I look up to my fellow finalists in the category, and even some who weren’t nominated.”
Washington, a McComb High School graduate, has been Summit’s principal ever since the school reopened in 2015.
As principal, Washington said, “I get to have an impact on students in a broader way. I love teaching — you influence that group of students you have in a particular year. But at the school level, you get to influence many more.
“I really, really believe in building relationships.”
One the lessons that Washington carries with her today occurred when she was a school counselor in West Palm Beach, Fla.
“We had 3,000 students, and I was responsible for 1,200.” she recalled. “One of my mentors told me to get to know everyone’s name. And that was my challenge.”
“And I just continue to do that as a principal, get to know every single scholar that crosses the threshold of Summit Elementary. To follow their progress means a lot. It just gives me great hope for the future. We’ve got a lot of good things going on.”
Washington described Summit as a school the practices “distributed leadership,” which she said means holding teachers accountable for building the culture of the school, and also holding students accountable for doing their part.
“It’s very easy to make demands,” she said. “But when it comes from the bottom up, when we hear about student needs and teacher needs and we make it happen, it makes what I do day to day worth it.”
Even so, it’s been a challenge. Summit was the McComb School District’s first “student-centered learning” location, meaning students in the same class could be working on different things depending on their academic progress. But test scores were not much different from other elementary schools in McComb.
“We had all the resources we needed,” Washington said. We just had to figure out how to make them work. There was a lot of trial and error. You have to learn how to be a total failure. If you fail, you try something different the next year.”
She’s heard the criticism and admitted it can be dispiriting. But she said research shows it takes three to five years to see any results from big changes.
“I had to go in thinking that it was going to be a long battle,” she said. “The critics just remind me to stick with it.”
APRIL HUFF
The North Pike Upper Elementary assistant principal sees her career, first with the Mississippi Department of Rehabilitation Services and then in education, as fulfilling her desire to help people.
“I just like to help, honestly, and I love kids, and wanted to help guide and mold them in whatever ways I possibly can,” Huff said.
She’s the sort of educator who’s willing to take part in a kickball game during phys ed class — whatever it takes to connect with kids.
“They trust me, they talk to me about things, and that’s the reason I try to be visible and accessible to them,” she said.
Huff moved into education at Osyka Elementary School, where she was a school counselor, assistant principal — and even a bus driver. Huff is a South Pike graduate and her father, John Hilbert, was a longtime member of the school board.
She formed tight bonds at Osyka Elementary where she described her counselor’s job as “working with the kids, help them break down barriers, mediating between students, parents and teachers.”
“Even though I’m here at North Pike, I still communicate with my students and families from South Pike,” she added.
She’s been a North Pike assistant principal for the past two years, and drives a bus there, too.
“Just to help out any way that I can,” she remarked.
Her duties include transportation issues, and she participates in many parent-teacher conferences, seeking a resolution before the parents leave. She also spends time in classrooms to see how both teachers and students are doing.
She also handles the morning announcements. They always begin with the “Y’all Ready for This?” music from the “Space Jam” movie. Huff also has three students participate. One leads the Pledge of Allegiance, another says the school motto, “Every student matters; every moment counts,” and a third recites the Learner’s Creed:
“As a North Pike Jaguar, I believe in myself and my ability to ability to do my best at all times. I will be respectful, I will be kind, I will be a good listener, I will be a diligent worker. I will do all these things with one purpose in mind: to be the best I can be. Jaguar Pride!”
Huff is pleased when she reports, “Every day, they know our creed. They don’t even have to read it off the paper. They know it.”
She is taking on a new assignment for the 2023-24 school year: upper elementary principal, succeeding Glenda Leonard, who is retiring.
“I’m going to be honest. I really haven’t thought about next school year because we have unfinished business,” Huff said. “Any time I pull up to this campus, I’m excited to be here. We all get the job done, and we enjoy being here, too.”
LEOLA GIVENS
Givens has been at South Pike, her alma mater, since 2000 when she started as a teacher’s assistant. She became school secretary in 2010 and found a fulfilling niche in the education process.
“I love what I do,” she said. “I love the children. It’s rewarding to work with them.
“I’ve had opportunities to move to jobs outside the district, but I chose to stay here.”
Givens said she is often the first adult a student talks to when there’s a problem at school.
“Many times when the student wants to use the phone or see the principal, I am the person they see first,”“ she said. “So they talk to me. I give them that ear — ‘Tell me what’s going on.’ I’m kind of the in-between person between the student and the parents, or the student and the school. Before they call home, I’m asking them why they want to.”
Givens believes her local roots helps her with students and parents.
“Most of these students, I know their parents and some of their relatives,” she said. “They tend to listen to me. I can get them calmed down.
“I tell them to settle down, it’s going to be OK, wait for the principal to hear your side. For the most part, they do listen.”
She, too, does a good bit of listening.
“When parents call and they’re irate and upset, I listen,” she said. “And when they stop, I try to insert something positive, and I tell them we’ll take care of it.
“I try to handle the situation the best I can, and it usually works.”
She said that teamwork between the school secretary and the principal is essential.
“I’ve worked with about five or six principals, some very good principals,” Givens said. “We never butted heads. We were just able to work together. If you have a good relationship, they’re receptive to what you’re saying.
“It takes all of us to make it work smoothly.”
