The Anna Maria Island Sun Newspaper

Vol. 14 No. 42 - August 13, 2014

FEATURE

New principal looks forward to new year

Anna Maria Island Sun News Story

tOM VAUGHT | SUN

Anna Maria Elementary School Principal Jackie Featherson at
her desk is ready for the new school, and she says she will
take input from parents and staff before making any large changes.

 

HOLMES BEACH – She has her office organized the way she wants, and she’s taken input from the teachers to help organize the school the way they all want it.

Jackie Featherston, former principal at Stewart Elementary, where she spent 18-and-a-half years, is happy to be on Anna Maria Island, where she visits when she’s not working. She’s also excited to be at the little school on the bay, saying the situation is similar to her old position when it comes to dealing with and relying on parents.

“Both schools are similar in that they have very active, involved parents,” she said. “This is going to be nice because I always feel like I’m on vacation when I’m on the Island.”

Featherston said she wouldn’t be making any changes quickly because that’s not how she operates.

“There are a lot of very right things going on at this school,” she said. “I will observe with the teachers.”

She said she started getting input shortly after she was transferred to AME at the end of the last school year.

“I met with the teachers, and I gave each of them a sheet of paper with two questions for them to answer and return,” she said. “The first question was, ‘What is something at this school that you would consider sacred,’ and the second question is, ‘Is there something that you feel compelled to identify as needing to be changed?’”

She said she would use the answers to make, or not make, changes.

“I see my job here as supporting the teachers, the students and the parents,” she said. “I want to keep things running smoothly.”

Personnel changes

Anna Maria Elementary will get its first assistant principal this school year, which the school will share with Rogers Garden Elementary School. AME will also share a student support specialist with the same school.

“The assistant principal can serve as principal and make determinations of discipline, but the final word on that is up to the principal,” Featherston said. “The student support specialist is a position for someone who aspires to be an assistant principal some day and will be working on discipline and preventing problems.

“For instance, when a student support specialist sees a group of kids gathering at the playground, she will get in there and make sure kids are being positive and obeying the rules.”

Bernadette Fletcher will be the assistant principal and Sally Jackson, a teacher at AME, will be the student support specialist.

“Specialists have been teachers and leaders with strong curriculum backgrounds,” Featherston said. “This year she will be working on the student handbook and we will be putting it online. She will also be responsible for training the staff and working with the teachers on remediating certain students.”

Cindi Harrison, the school’s student counselor, will be back in a fulltime basis. She went to part-time last year during some budget cuts. The school also will get a lab manager who will work with third-, fourth- and fifth-grade students on reading and math.

Countdown

There will be an open house on Thursday, Aug. 14, for students and their parents. The open house will be open to kindergarten through second-graders from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. and to third- through fifth- graders from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.

The first day of school is Monday, Aug. 18. School starts at 8:30 a.m. and lets out at 2:50 p.m.

Bus schedules are posted at http://www.manateeschools.net/.


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