With Georgia Pre-K Week being celebrated the week of October 5th-9th, we thought it fitting to begin our National Principals Month Recognitions with a profile on Lori Smith, Director of the Baldwin County Early Learning Center.
Lori Smith
Lori Smith, Director of the Baldwin County Early Learning Center, has been working in education for 23 years. 5 of those years has been spent as our bright and cheerful school leader of our youngest learners.
Mrs. Smith believes the Early Learning Center is a happy supportive place to work and she feels so blessed to be a part of enhancing the lives of area students and their families.
“The ELC is such a great place to work. I feel like we get to make decisions everyday that improve the lives of students and their families and that makes me feel like we are truly making a difference in this community. Because our students are so young, we have become a second home for them. We are all family.”
Mrs. Smith considers herself as a fair and democratic school leader.
“I think everyone in the room has something to offer. I believe if I knew everything I would not need a team of people to make this school run and it runs beautifully because of the special skills that each and everyone one brings to the table.”
Although she grew up in Bibb County, she is no stranger to our area. After receiving her Bachelor degree from LaGrange College, and her Masters from Mercer University, she attended Georgia College and State University to pursue her Specialist degree. She has been married to her husband Jonathan for 25 years and they have 3 children—2 sons and 1 daughter. They also have 3 rescue dogs who she says add so much to her family’s lives.
Under Mrs. Smith’s leadership, the Early Learning Center is a KIND campus.
“Our mascot is the Bee because we are always striving to Be Kind and we follow our Kind rules.”
The Kind rules are Kind Feet, Kind Hands, Kind Words, and Kind Ears. Mrs. Smith says the KIND approach has created a wonderful atmosphere for learning at the school.
As the Director of the Early Learning Center Mrs. Smith strives to uphold her main goal which is to keep children safe and provide them the very best education.
“I’ve always felt that when I make decisions that are in the best interest of children everything else seems to work out. My primary goal is to always keep children safe and to give them the best education possible.”