Prior to becoming the principal at Lakeview Primary, Tracy Clark served as an assistant principal at Eagle Ridge Elementary (now Lakeview Academy) for seven years. One of her early duties was facilitating the transition from Creekside Elementary to the new Lakeview Primary. "Different teachers, different staff members, different students, and it was a transition to becoming the new primary school," Clark said, "but on my end, it was not that hard of a transition due to the fact that I knew a lot of the staff from Eagle Ridge."
"My favorite thing about being a principal is the students and the staff that I work with. I work with an amazing staff who wholeheartedly will do whatever they need to do to ensure the students are successful."
This year is Mrs. Clark's 30th year with the Baldwin County School District, and every year comes with its own unique set of challenges. Clark, herself a Baldwin High School graduate, received degrees in Early Childhood and Middle Grades Education from Georgia College, so when she says that this year has been one of the most stressful, she's speaking from a background steeped in the Baldwin educational tradition.
"I think this year is particularly stressful because we have students coming back from the pandemic and it may be their first time in school, and they have to bridge that home-to-school gap," Clark said, "but it's not just for the students but for the teachers, too because this year they're seeing higher enrollment numbers in their classrooms," Clark said that this year is the first she's seen the ratio of students to teachers return to their pre-COVID numbers.
As a leader, she must vacillate between making sure that everyone's getting what they need so they aren't stressed without becoming stressed herself. "That's the biggest thing," Clark said, "because if they see me stressed, then that's only going to get them more stressed, but I also want them to know that I'm a real person. So, if they're frustrated, then I'm frustrated too."
According to the NASSP's 2022 Survey of America's School Leaders and High School Students, 50% of all school leaders report their stress levels to be high enough for them to consider changing careers or retiring. Clark said that although there is a lot of stress to being a school principal, there are also a lot of rewards. "My favorite thing about being the principal is the students and the staff that I work with. I work with an amazing staff who wholeheartedly will do whatever they need to do to ensure students are successful."
Tracy Clark is also a native of Milledgeville, who began her work as a paraprofessional at Southside Elementary. She has deep ties to the community, with her mother and father also working for the District, as well as her husband, Jay. Her daughter Madeline is also a student of Baldwin County.
Clark has seen schools grow from a place where children came to get an education to a community of family services with different options such as the Bee Well Clinic, the Montessori Academy, and the Summer Meals Program. This year, all of Lakeview Primary is hosting STEAM-related activities for families and rebooting some of its long-standing traditions as well as starting several new ones. Clark said she loves to visit classrooms to see what students are learning. "Students come up to me to offer a hug. I have a little boy who calls me Miss Principal. He may not know my name, but he knows who I am," and for Clark, that makes all the difference.
Comments