Principal's Message

One of my assignments in college was to develop my philosophy of education.  To be quite honest, at that point in my life, I had never thought a lot about my philosophy.  I knew I wanted to be a teacher and a coach, and couldn’t wait to start my career.  As I started to do some research to write my paper, I came across a saying from the great Chinese philosopher, Confucius.  I liked it so much; it became my philosophy of education.  Confucius says, “Choose a job you love and you’ll never have to work a day in your life.”  24 years later, this still holds true for me.  I love my job at Augusta Independent School and still can’t wait to see what each new year brings.

In August, I will be starting my 25^th year at AIS.  This year will be my 11^th as the principal.  I have also served time as the assistant principal, athletic director, teacher and coach.  No matter my role, my focus has always been about providing our students with the best possible environment, education, and experiences that will allow them to grow into responsible and productive citizens after they graduate.

We are very excited to put the past year and a half behind us and move forward as we start the 2021-2022 school year.  Even though teaching and learning during the pandemic was very challenging, we proved that we could do it effectively.  We also learned a great deal from our challenges and we will use these things to be able to provide a more individualized education for every student at Augusta Independent.  No matter what was going on around us, our faculty, staff, students and parents rose to the occasion and worked together to ensure that our students were able to persevere and keep growing.

I am excited that we will be able to start the 2021-22 school year off with 2 new positions that will be key in helping our students continue to grow and master the skills needed to be successful.  We are fortunate to be adding a media specialist / librarian as well as a math interventionist to join our already successful reading intervention program.  All three of these programs will help close any learning gaps that we might possibly come across.

Our school motto is, “Small School, Big Experience”.  We feel we have created a school that gives students the best of both worlds.  We offer our students the same opportunities that they would find in schools and districts much larger than us, but we also offer them a culture and climate built on being a family.  We look out for each other, we help each other and we celebrate each other.  Our small class sizes and outstanding teacher to student ratio ensures that you are more than just a face in the crowd.  We pride ourselves on not only knowing each student, but also individualizing his or her education so that each student can be successful. 

It is truly an honor to be the principal at Augusta Independent.  I grew up in Augusta, graduated from Augusta and it was always my dream to come back home (or in my case, never leave home) to teach at Augusta Independent.  I have been truly blessed to have never worked a day in my life.  Thank you for allowing me to live out my lifelong dream every day.