Above-par principal

Zealous educator’s efforts boost students’ prospects for success

Films have dramatized the impact that impassioned teachers can have on a failing public school. Meanwhile, real-life educators are inspiring excellence in education, and they’re miles from a Hollywood movie set.

Currently principal of Whitewater Middle School, Dr. Valarie Williams took over as principal of Vance High School in 2010 as part of the county’s Strategic Staffing Initiative, a program in which principals drive transformative change. “You have to get the students and staff to believe that they can achieve, and you can turn around a school,” she explains.

Under her direction, Vance’s graduation rate increased from 64 percent to 81 percent in two years. At Whitewater, she has continued to elicit change, implementing a model of three college-themed academies, including the ever-popular International Business and Communication Academy.

“We pique their interest and get kids thinking about declaring a major as early as the sixth grade,” she says. “If we do a good job, they keep their interest up in high school and maybe even major in it in college.”

Williams advocates focusing on students’ individual learning styles and tailoring the teaching to them. It’s something with which she has firsthand experience. A former eighth-grade teacher, she often worked with the slower learners and helped them achieve success. Around this time, a colleague approached her with these words: “God told me to tell you that there’s something bigger for you that you need to be doing with students.”

That same day, Williams enrolled in East Carolina University’s MBA program but “hated every minute of it.” With her MBA fresh in hand, she went back to school for an education specialist degree, following that up with a doctorate in education. She soon began stints at a series of middle schools, repeatedly increasing end-of-grade scores and attendance, and getting students back on grade level. 

She loves the work she’s doing at Whitewater Middle, citing her staff as open to new ideas and unafraid of change. “Although we’re not where we want to be at the end of the road, we are experiencing growth, ensuring the kids get exactly what they need to be successful,” she says.

“I know my passion is working with children,” she concludes. “There is no other career I could see ever having that would give me the fulfillment and joy” that comes from “knowing I made a difference in not only a child’s life now, but also their future.”