As conversations in the reception area at Eastside Elementary School intensified shortly before the first bell of the day, Sonia Caldwell stepped into her new office to collect her thoughts.
As the first day of her new role as the building’s principal began Wednesday, Caldwell admitted to a slight case of apprehension about how the day would unfold.
“I’m not feeling nervous yet,” Caldwell said with a laugh. “When those buses pull up and those first kids start coming in, I think that will be the moment it all sets in.”
After two years as the director of Southview Preschool Center and a stint last year as assistant principal at Eastside, Caldwell is assuming the lead role there as district administrators emphasize heightened expectations for improvements in student academic performance and behavior.
It’s a challenge Caldwell said she feels prepared for. Replacing the building’s previous principal, Val Scott — who retired after 12 years at the school — Caldwell said she views her main task as continuing to foster a positive atmosphere that will spur that growth.
“I know that Dr. Scott had high expectations for everyone including herself, so I think as a whole, I have really high, high expectations for myself,” Caldwell said. “I would never ask anyone to do something that I wouldn’t be willing to do myself.”
Caldwell emerged from an intensive search for Scott’s replacement that included both internal and outside candidates, according to Kathy McCord, director of curriculum, instruction and elementary education for Anderson Community Schools.
Among six finalists for the job, Caldwell’s diverse experience as a teacher, reading specialist and literacy coach, as well as her leadership at Southview, were seen as valuable qualities.
“We felt that she had the energy and she had the drive that really stuck out, that she would be the candidate that would take E2 where it is and continue moving it forward with her vision,” McCord said.
Working for a full year with Scott allowed Caldwell to formulate goals for student academic achievement that were in line with Scott’s vision, McCord said. That was important to the committee, she noted, because district leaders are stressing accountability for building leaders in several categories of learning and behavioral metrics.
“At the end of the day, the academic achievement of any school is the responsibility of the instructional leader, and that instructional leader is your building-level principal,” McCord said. “The bar is raised this year for all of our principals. We’re focusing on that academic piece, which we always have. But it’s at the forefront, and everybody knows it this year.”
Caldwell said she will embrace the increased scrutiny, in part because she believes it will remind administrators of positive things that happen in the district’s classrooms every day.
“We are welcoming a really collaborative relationship between (administrators) and ourselves,” she said. “It’s more of a partnership than it has been before. We want people here in the building to see what great things we’re doing and how hard our teachers are working.”
As Caldwell has settled into her new role, those working with her note that she has made only minor changes in procedures and overall routines. Her connections with students and staff alike, they said, are genuine and will help inform her decisions.
“She’s absolutely ready,” said Kristi Proctor, an art teacher at Eastside who has known Caldwell for 25 years. “She’s very aware of what the culture here is. She knows what we’re going through, and she’s very cognizant of that when she’s making decisions and how they affect the whole school and how they affect the teachers and the children.”
This article appeared in The Herald Bulletin.