Woodard Does It For The KidsNORTH WEBSTER - Kris Woodard loves many things about North Webster Elementary School, but especially the students.
"I love the kids because that's what I do it for. The kids here are wonderful. We have a lot of community support. They love the school, they take pride in it. I feel real love for the school," she said.
Woodard has served as North Webster's principal for five years. The school building is only about nine years old.Originally from St. John's, Mich., she graduated with a teacher's degree from Michigan State University.
She married Milford School industrial technology teacher Cayle Woodard, which brought her down to the Wawasee School Corp. area. Cayle and Kris have been married 24 years.
Woodard said she has five children, including Sharada Sullivan, RJ Nethaway, Doug Nethaway, Damon Woodard and Kaytlyn Woodard.
Before moving down here, Kris Woodard was a preschool teacher in Michigan. Her first teaching job was at South Whitley Elementary School as a fifth-grade teacher. After four years, Woodard transferred to Pierceton Elementary for 4-1/2 years. She then joined the Milford School staff.
"It just kind of evolved," she said of how she became a principal. "I had an opportunity while at Pierceton to do an office job as a teacher coordinator. I did that for several months because we were between superintendents. I had the taste of administration and I liked it."
Being the mom of five children, she didn't go back to school right away to get her superintendent's license.
Before becoming North Webster's principal, she was the assistant principal at Milford School. She also served as principal at Silver Lake for one year.
Woodard takes pride in her job, and in the school building she now oversees.
"It is a beautiful, beautiful building," Woodard said of North Webster. "What's inside it really makes it a school - the students, the staff. The beautiful building is just a bonus."
Asked what the best thing about being a principal is, Woodard said, "I think the best thing is when you feel like you have contributed in some positive way to make children reach their greatest potential."
A principal's greatest challenge today is a matter of balance.
"I think right now, it's balancing the direction of education with being data driven to see if we're improving, balancing that with the business of humans. It's just being able to balance the two things," she said.
Schools use the data they gather to see if they are making progress. However, she said, schools can't lose the perspective that they are still dealing with children.
To help children reach their potential, Woodard said North Webster has many good programs.
One new initiative is that North Webster is in its first year as a CLASS School. CLASS stands for Connecting Learning Assures Successful Students. Woodard said the school has a CLASS coach and teachers and staff attend workshops. It's an all-encompassing program that works on the culture and climate of the building, but also targets literacy and use of best practices.
Along with CLASS, North Webster also is in its first year of Positive Behavior Intervention Systems. Woodard said CLASS and PBIS mesh well together.
With PBIS, students are taught to treat each other with respect and what's expected of them. They are steeped in procedures so they can meet those expectations.
"We've really loved all of it. It really looks great," said Woodard.
Parental involvement is an important part of any school. Woodard said that while North Webster always wants to see more, the school has had very positive parental involvement for the most part.
"Life is buy, parents are busy, so I feel we have to be very purposeful when we ask parents to come in," she said.
North Webster has a great Parents Teachers Friends Organization that is involved in the school in a lot of ways, Woodard said.
Woodard has a number of goals for the school. Two specific goals for the school are reading comprehension for non-fiction and critical thinking skills for math and across the curriculum. As a corporation, Wawasee also has a goal of improved writing.
"That's one thing that has really changed over the years is expectation in writing," she said.
To help improve writing and reading skills, North Webster has Readers and Writers Workshop. The school has "coaches" that work specifically with teachers to help them train to be better teachers. Woodard said they've been great.
Woodard also likes to make use of technology whenever possible. However, she said it's hard to keep up with the training that goes with it and the expense.
Woodard has a vision for the North Webster staff for the next five years.
"I'd like to see us continue on the path we are on in terms of growing and learning as a profession," she said. Teachers have to keep learning themselves because the world is changing so fast.
She said she wants to help teachers have what they need so they can do the best job they can. She said the overall theme though is to help every kid learn to their greatest potential.
"I guess, about North Webster Elementary, I just want the people to know the dedication and commitment of the staff to help students be the best they can be. Anyone in the teaching profession has to have a huge heart for kids and a passion for what they do. It's a pretty special job to have," she said.
