Leading a K-8 School with Over 700 Students

Welcome From GALE In Georgia

SPEAKER_01 0:06

Welcome to Spotlight for Success with American Book Company. I'm your host, Derek Ventosi, and here we are at the Summer Gale in Jekyll Island, Georgia. Today we have our special guest with us here today. Her name is Holly Walters. She is the principal for the Dooley K through 8 Academy, and we're so thankful to have you here today.

SPEAKER_00 0:23

Thank you. I'm happy to be here.

Why School Leaders Come To GALE

SPEAKER_01 0:25

Absolutely. And uh what brings you here to Gale?

SPEAKER_00 0:28

Well, uh I'm I always come to Gale as a leader, a school leader. Um, I come here to learn, grow, uh, network, talk to other people, find out what other schools are doing so that I can help to make uh the experiences for the students that I serve better as well.

Running Two Schools In One Building

SPEAKER_01 0:45

Amazing. So tell me a little bit about your position as uh principal in Dooley County.

SPEAKER_00 0:49

Okay, so I am the K8 principal, and what that means is that I'm principal of two schools. So we have two schools that's located in one building, but it's still two separate schools. However, we try to operate as one school, one system. Our school serves two-thirds, over two-thirds of the students in Dooley County, so it's a big position uh that entails a lot. I supervise uh around a hundred um adults and um teachers, adults, faculty, and staff, and we have uh over 700 students at my school.

SPEAKER_01 1:19

Wow, that is a large school. Yeah, what's your favorite part about being a principal?

The Best Part Of Being Principal

SPEAKER_00 1:23

Oh, I love um just the uh spontaneous, uh spontaneous adventures that we have each and every day. So you never know what you're gonna run into every day. Um I do love seeing students grow, students learn. I like seeing the light bulb go off when students grasp concepts and learn things, but and I also love to see our teachers, our faculty and staff grow because we've seen a lot of that here lately.

SPEAKER_01 1:49

Absolutely.

Using Fast Break For Remediation

SPEAKER_01 1:50

And you mentioned early earlier that you have used American Book Company books. What has your experience been with them and did you see test improvement?

SPEAKER_00 1:57

So we've used them before. At one point we just ordered books just to because it looked like a good resource and we didn't implement them, you know, as we should have. This year we have been able to hire a full-time RAP teacher for our middle school, and we have EIP teachers uh for our elementary school, and so we have this year purchased the fast break books that will help with closing gaps, remediation, and to give them another resource to use something different from what they're already using in their core instruction for the grade level.

SPEAKER_01 2:28

Awesome. I love that.

SPEAKER_00 2:29

So we anticipate, um we do anticipate for students to grow even more. Uh, we know that it's a resource that is proven to work, we've seen it before, we've looked at your results and your data, and so we're just excited about what it will do for our students.

SPEAKER_01 2:44

We we love to hear that, and we're so glad that you have become part of our company.

Dooley County Pride And Barbecue

SPEAKER_01 2:49

Um tell me a little bit about Dooley County. I don't know much about it.

SPEAKER_00 2:53

So Dooley County is a rural county. It's located, it's in southwest Georgia, it's uh 20 miles from Houston County, about 10 minutes from Cordille, Crisp County. It's very small. Uh big landmass area, a lot of ag agricultural area there, um, but very small, not a lot of businesses. Um we hail uh we have uh Myra Mixon, who is uh Food Network, uh Food Network, Network Yes, Food Network has deemed him the barbecue champion of the world. And so they have in Dooley County something that's known as the big pig jig in the dilly dally, and it's every year, and it's a big barbecue competition, and he actually teaches and trains people on how to how to barbecue well. And so it is that's that's Dooley County. It's big agland, biggest producer of cotton, um just a big rural area full of people with heart.

SPEAKER_01 3:51

Yeah, I love that. That that sounds really delicious too.

SPEAKER_00 3:54

So I know, right?

SPEAKER_01 3:55

Yeah, I got we got I gotta try that for sure.

SPEAKER_00 3:57

And I'll say he he's uh uh Mr. Mix, and he's also the mayor of one of the towns in Dooley County, and he supports our our local schools as well in different ways.

SPEAKER_01 4:07

Man, what what can you not do? Wow.

SPEAKER_00 4:09

Right.

SPEAKER_01 4:10

Um uh do you have any last words for the Gale community?

Thanks, Reflections, And Sign-Off

SPEAKER_00 4:14

Uh I will just say thank you to uh the planners, the committees that plan Gale. It's just a wonderful experience. This is my fourth year coming and fifth year coming, I'm sorry, and I have enjoyed every minute of it, learned a lot, and look forward to coming every year.

SPEAKER_01 4:30

Well, thank you for coming to our podcast, Holly. Thank you. Thank you for tuning in and peace out.

SPEAKER_00 4:34

Thank you.