New Riverwood Middle principal comes home to Johnston County

Submitted by JOHNSTON COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS

CLAYTON — Monica Sawyer moved to Smithfield when she was 10 years old. As an only child growing up in rural eastern North Carolina, she promised herself that as soon as she graduated from Smithfield-Selma High she would move away and never return.

Four years ago, she happily ate those words and moved back to Johnston County, settling in Clayton. “My mom loves to tease me about that,” she said.

Most recently, she was tapped as the new principal of Riverwood Middle. Talk about never say never.

Sawyer never strayed too far from Johnston County, however, only going as far as N.C. State University where she earned a bachelor’s degree in Business and Marketing Education. She worked in the sports marketing office at N.C. State for four years as the assistant director of sports marketing.

The knowledge Sawyer gained from that position flowed right into teaching when she taught high school business and marketing classes at Wakefield High in Raleigh. She was able to provide her students with real world experience in the field.

From there, Sawyer earned her master’s degree in Executive Leadership Studies from Gardner-Webb University. She has spent the last seven years as an assistant principal, and was named the 2020-2021 Wake County Public Schools Assistant Principal of the Year. She spent the 2021-2022 school year as the assistant principal at South Garner High until getting the job at Riverwood Middle just before the start of this school year.

The quickness of her appointment has only amplified Sawyer’s excitement about being the new principal. “I am thrilled to be a Riverwood Middle School Raven! I can’t wait to meet all of the students, staff and families and get started,” she said.

Sawyer was one of those teacher wannabe’s who would come home and line up her Cabbage Patch dolls and teach them what she had learned in school each day. “It’s just something I was always meant to do,” she said. Her favorite teachers were instrumental in opening that path of Sawyer’s love for learning and teaching. She had planned all along to be a math teacher, as it was her favorite subject thanks to her pre-calculus and calculus teacher, Ms. Deaton.

Sawyer recalls her senior year and making up rap songs about calculus in preparation for an upcoming test. “She took something that was hard and pushed us and made it fun,“ she said.

Another influential person in her life was her eighth grade English Language Arts teacher, Ms. Batten, who would sit on her perch, as she called it, on the side of the classroom and make ELA interesting. “I never knew diagramming sentences could be so fun,” Sawyer said.

Clearly, she was surrounded by smart, strong women. The strongest of those women, who also happens to be her hero, is her mom. Sawyer’s mom overcame a lot of adversity in her life, yet, she always put Sawyer first. “I can pick up the phone and call her and she will drop everything and be there for me,” she said.

Sawyer had planned to be a math teacher all through high school. However, after her third semester in college, she realized that she wanted to teach something else. That’s when she switched to business and marketing education as her major.

Being a principal as opposed to a teacher is very different. Sawyer wanted to have a greater impact, especially on teachers. “I love seeing teachers grow and blossom,” she said.

She once had a teacher that, within the first few weeks of school, was ready to throw in the towel. Sawyer worked with that teacher throughout the year and saw her grow immensely. “Seeing the good in people and being able to push and grow teachers into better educators is amazing,” she said.

Education is important to Sawyer because she believes it dictates a lot of how a child will be when they grow up. “Our future is in this school right now, and it is our job to teach them,” she said.

She believes that when you educate the whole child and provide a safe learning environment, students will be as successful as they can be. Sawyer stays motivated by remembering her “why” and that is the kids. “Making decisions based on what’s best for the kids is how I stay motivated every day,” she said.

Making connections with her students and staff is essential. Sawyer does this by simply being real. “It’s important just to have conversations and get to know them as people, as well as students and staff,” Sawyer said. “It’s important to ask, ‘How was your weekend?’, or ‘How’d that game go?’”

That attitude will serve her vision for Riverwood Middle well. Sawyer wants Riverwood Middle to be a school where students, staff and the community are proud to be Ravens. “I want our staff and community members to know that they can be a part of the school and a part of the vision for the school,” she said.

The future of Riverwood Middle is bright with Sawyer at the helm. She plans for students to continue performing well academically, but she also wants them to be able to look back on their time at Riverwood Middle and have someone at the school they can remember like she does Ms. Batten and Ms. Deaton.

On her days off, she loves going to the beach, attending N.C. State home football games, and spending time with her parents. Paris is Sawyer’s favorite place on Earth and she would jump at the chance to visit there again. She spent an extended spring break in Paris and still didn’t get to do all of the things the city had to offer.

As much as she couldn’t wait to get out of Johnston County, she was just as excited four years ago when she came back. Her mom retired from JCPS in 2012. “Johnston County is home to me,” she said. “To come home and be a principal means a tremendous amount to me.”

She recalls talking with her principal at Smithfield-Selma High in front of the Spartan statue in the lobby and telling the principal that one day she would have her job. “Being a principal has been my dream since I was a senior at Smithfield-Selma High and to be able to serve the Riverwood community is such an honor,” she said.