Two Rock Hill school principals take on new roles in 2020-21. ‘Our focus is safety.’
In its meeting last week, the Rock Hill Schools Board of Trustees recognized several administrators who’ve stepped into new roles ahead of the 2020-21 school year, including two principals.
Jamie Ledsinger will open Saluda Trail Middle School and Bianca Chivers-White will open Old Pointe Elementary School to students on Sept. 8, the district’s first day of classes.
Both have substantial experience as educators.
Ledsinger, who most recently was the interim principal at Northside Elementary School of the Arts in Rock Hill, has been an educator for 18 years. She has worked in elementary, middle and high school settings and has held principalships at three schools in Union County (N.C.) Public Schools and Anson County (N.C.) School District.
She told The Herald that in the weeks leading up to the start of a typical year, school administrators would be preparing professional development strategies for their teachers and developing guides for how exactly to pace curricula to best meet the needs of students.
But this year? Saluda Trail is spending a lot of time ensuring safety.
“Right now, our focus is safety,” Lesinger told The Herald in a phone interview last week. “I’ve had Zoom meetings with approximately 90 people on staff over this summer just to reassure our teachers that our focus as an administrative team is safety.”
‘A unique time for principals’
Ledsinger also said Saluda Trail will prioritize social and emotional learning. After all, students will be in a school setting for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic forced a shutdown in mid-March — and the school setting will be different than ever.
Students who choose to have in-person instruction will see their teachers twice or three times a week and learn remotely for the rest of their school days. And when students are inside the school building, they’ll have to wear masks in some capacity, practice social distancing and heed other COVID-19 safety guidelines.
Ledsinger said being able to lead during this time, despite the challenges, poses an exciting opportunity.
“I know that it is a unique time for principals to be opening schools during the pandemic,” she said. “However, it’s really exciting that we’re having an opportunity to showcase what we can do for students, to move the needle in their education and learning, whether that’s online in a virtual environment, here face-to-face, or a blend of the two.”
Chivers-White largely agreed with Ledsinger.
Chivers-White, who had served as interim principal at Old Pointe Elementary School since January before being promoted to principal in late May, told The Herald that many of the new elements of the 2020-21 school year are opportunities for growth.
“We’re going to have more time to truly invest in individualized learning for our students because we’ll have smaller numbers in the classroom,” she said. “So the students who we are concerned about, that may have missed something over the six months that the school has been closed, we are now going to really be able to have targeted instruction for them. That’s a positive.”
This is the first principalship for Chivers-White. The Camden, S.C., native served as an assistant principal at Old Pointe from September 2014 to December 2019, and before that, the Winthrop alumna taught third grade at Independence Elementary School in Rock Hill.
Chivers-White said she is the product of three grandparents who were educators, including her grandfather, William Chivers, who was the first African American principal at Camden High School in Camden, S.C. Chivers was posthumously inducted into the Camden High School Hall of Fame in November 2019.
“This year will be a success,” Chivers-White said. “We will continue to make positive impacts on our students, and we are working around the clock to create the best plan that we can to support everyone that we can.”
This story was originally published August 17, 2020 at 11:56 AM.
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