Northern Elementary
... at our local schools
Time does indeed fly, and although it seems one school year just ended, another one is already upon us. To gain some insight into what’s new for the 2021-22 school year, we reached out to principals at the six public elementary schools, three public middle schools, two public high schools and three public charter schools in our readership area and asked how they and their staff are preparing for the students’ return on Aug. 23. The following is some of the feedback we got from them…
Colfax Elementary
9112 W. Market Street, Colfax (336) 275-4332 www.gcsnc.com/colfax_elementary Enrollment:
560
(as of mid-August)
New principal Ashley Garcia says she will be ‘gracefully bold’ in her mission Ashley Garcia is the new principal at Colfax Elementary School this year, but although she is new to the position, she’s very familiar with the area. A native of Greensboro, Garcia attended Oak Ridge Elementary, Northwest Middle, Northwest High and Greensboro Middle College her senior year. This year marks her 15th year in education; she spent over 10 years teaching exclusively in Title I schools, where she taught various grades including kindergarten, third and fifth. She also spent four years as an assistant principal and left that position at Millis Road Elementary School to become principal at Colfax. Garcia said she is ecstatic to join the extraordinary team at Colfax and is looking forward to putting her stamp on the school. “My approach is student-centered, collaborative, and data-driven with a focus on growth and equity,” she said. “Every decision I make is with our students’ best interests in mind. I firmly believe all students can achieve at high levels when given equity of access and opportunity in a fun, engaging learning environment, and I will be gracefully bold in my mission to ensure this occurs at our school.”
3801 N.C. 150, Greensboro (336) 656-4032 www.gcsnc.com/northern_elementary Enrollment:
620
(as of mid-August)
Principal: Robert Richmond Drum roll, please … students will get enthusiastic “welcome back” to school Aug. 23, along with new faces, ACES and more Northern Guilford Elementary School will welcome several new staff members this year, including a second, a fourth and a fifth grade classroom teacher, a speech pathologist, an Exceptional Children’s teacher assistant and a new physical education teacher, Guy Vann, who comes to Northern Elementary from Page High School. Vann’s three sons – ages 9, 11 and 15 – are current or former students of Northern Elementary. Other new staff members with previous connections to the school include Katie Brande, NEST (Northern Engineering Science and Technology) lab teacher, who was a student in Northern Elementary’s first fourth-grade class, in 2008, and graduated from Northern High School in 2016. Principal Robert Richmond notes Northern Elementary was one of four schools in Guilford County to be awarded a national PTA School of Excellence
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Garcia is especially excited that the school is offering a new STEM program this year, which will be included as one of the students’ special classes. “We’ve been building it from the ground up and have added staff to support the program,” she said. Another new thing this year is the creation of a Colfax alumni group, which will focus on keeping members of the school’s extended community up to date on what’s happening at the school. Garcia plans to produce a quarterly newsletter to help keep everyone connected.
fall2021
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