These new Beaufort County SC principals are learning with ‘no playbook’ in pandemic
Vicki Goude has been invested in Beaufort County School District her whole life. First as a kindergarten student, then as a kindergarten teacher, a parent, and eventually an assistant principal at Beaufort Elementary.
But nothing from her 25-year career in Beaufort County could have prepared her for her new job: This summer, she was named principal of Port Royal Elementary. In a pandemic. She’s leading her own school for the first time at a time education has been turned on its head.
“There was no playbook for the specifics of that,” Goude said. “But through the experience I had and the skills I built and the network of principals I had, ... I was confident in finding ways to support students even in a pandemic.”
Nikki Lucas, another first-year principal, agreed. After five years as an assistant principal at Hilton Head Island School for the Creative Arts, she was promoted to principal of that school and Daufuskie Island Elementary when her predecessor, Gretchen Keefner, retired.
It’s her first principalship in South Carolina, though she had previously been a principal in West Virginia. She describes the job as “a calling.”
As assistant principals, both women had scrambled to get classes online when S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster shut down schools in March.
Goude held daily video calls with students and staff, first to get them used to Zoom and then to check in on the emotional health of kids suddenly separated from their school.
“Literally, we were in the building one day and — we knew this could happen, but all the sudden school was closed and it was boots to the ground,” Lucas said.
Summer break gave the district some breathing room, and marked the first time Goude and Lucas participated in district-wide principal meetings to map out a school year under a pandemic.
Superintendent Frank Rodriguez and deputy superintendent Duke Bradley have pointed to these meetings every time a reopening decision has been made, from starting the school year virtually to moving into hybrid classes to preparing for full-week, in-person instruction after winter break.
Several school safety measures, including the daily temperature checks that students now take before going into the schools, and the way desks have been spaced out for hybrid instruction, stemmed from those meetings, Goude said.
She also credited those meetings and smaller, school-cluster specific ones as a way for new principals to connect with colleagues and get advice from veteran school leaders.
Lucas’ and Goude’s schools have largely avoided COVID-19 outbreaks. Since Sept. 28, the district has reported only three COVID-19 cases among students and staff at Hilton Head Island School for the Creative Arts, and none at Port Royal Elementary.
Both principals are gearing up for Jan. 4, which will mark the start of full-week, in-person instruction in the district.
It’s been challenging to transition between modes of instruction, Goude said, and teachers “have exhausted themselves making sure students are working and moving in the right direction.” She said her school has already worked through a lot of the questions that came up when in-person learning began in October.
Goude also said she’s preparing teachers for synchronous learning — teaching virtual and in-person students at the same time — which will make it easier for quarantining students to participate.
Lucas has expanded outdoor learning at her schools, and said she’s received three grants this year for new class spaces and supplies for related arts curriculum.
“I don’t know that we aspired to be principals in a pandemic, but personally I aspired to effect change at a school level,” Goude said. “And what better way to do it than in a huge challenge like this?”
“Everything is going to be cream after this, because this experience is going to set the tone for my career moving on, and it can only get better.”
This story originally published on Dec. 21, 2020
This story was originally published December 21, 2020 at 12:02 PM.