
Among the pantheon of principals at Baldwin County, Dr. Eric Carlyle is the rookie, having been at Midway Hills Academy for three years now, but he's had three decades of experience in education at several districts across Georgia which has allowed him to contribute a wide breadth of experience to the role. He's no stranger to the kind of stress that comes with servant leadership, as he's served as elementary Assistant Principal in Griffin-Spalding and Gwinnett counties, and at the district level in Clayton and Fulton counties, as well as 10 years as a middle school principal.
"Stress is part of leadership," said Carlyle, "one of the things I've found that has been the most effective has been to have really strong and highly skilled people on my team." Carlyle said that what has been particularly stressful during his term at MHA so far has been the traumatic fallout of the pandemic. "Since we've returned to full time in-person instruction, we've understood the importance of prioritizing academics and being accountable, but also acknowledging that everybody has experienced COVID. Both the adults as well as the students, and we're figuring out ways to leverage and deal with that trauma."
"Since we've returned to full time in-person instruction, we've understood the importance of prioritizing academics and being accountable, but also acknowledging that everybody has experienced COVID. Both the adults as well as the students, and we're figuring out ways to leverage and deal with that trauma."
Of course, Midway Hills Academy and the greater Baldwin District are not alone in this effort. The National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) just released it's results for its Survey of America's School Leaders which found that 73% of school leaders say they needed help with their emotional or mental health this past year. Carlyle said that part of his administrative efforts since he came to the school have been devoted to "creating the type of environment where we want to work and do our best to improve student outcomes, while realizing the fact that it is vital that we also take care of each other, as humans, both physically and emotionally."
Carlyle originally intended to become a news anchor when he went to college. He majored in Communications at Georgia Southern University. But he noticed how much his brother really seemed to enjoy being an educator and a coach at the time, and decided that he would take a few pre-education courses as an elective. "And I loved it," he said, so he decided that he would rather stay in Georgia to educate rather than move away to go into broadcasting. He got his Masters in Middle Grades Education at Georgia Southern, followed by a Specialist Degree in Education from Columbus State, and then a Doctorate in Public Policy and Administration from Walden University.
Although Baldwin County is not the largest the Carlyle has worked at, he said that, in terms of academic support for its staff and students, "it's understandably one of the premier school districts. Not only in the state of Georgia, but nationally."

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