Principal's Message
Welcome to Burke County Life Center (BCLC), where opportunities are provided for students to be successful in a non-traditional setting!
It is an honor and a privilege to serve as the Principal at BCLC. I have been an educator in the Burke County School System since 1997. In my twenty-three years, I have been a paraprofessional (BES), a teacher (BES), a coach (BCHS), an assistant principal (WPS/BES/SGA), and a principal (SGA/BCAS/BCLC). During my tenure, I have received accolades such as Teacher of the Year (BES ’06), Coach of the Year, and Assistant Coach of the Year.
As a native of Burke County, I have built and continue to build positive relationships with students and their families. The rapport we establish with one another is beneficial to our growth and maturity. These relationships are also essential for student learning.
At BCLC, we encourage and build participation by drawing out students’ contribution to their own learning. We also recognize students for what they have achieved, helping them to build a positive reputation for themselves. Thirdly, we instill motivation by building students’ confidence and capabilities through school-wide Positive Behavior Reinforcements (PBIS).
Many years ago, I adopted the cliché, “All students can learn, but not in the same way or at the same rate.” I never knew my thoughts earlier in my career would prove useful in my years as an alternative program principal because at BCLC we know that our students will not learn in the same manner or at the same pace. Therefore, their experiences at BCLC will be completely different from those in a traditional school. We offer non-traditional hours for 11th and 12th graders, we offer opportunities for credit recovery, as well as offer smaller class sizes which allows for more individualized instruction.
Be unafraid to take the road less travelled by:
- Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and sorry I could not travel both and be one traveler, long I stood and looked down one as far as I could to where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other as just as fair, and having perhaps the better claim because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there had worn them really about the same, and both that morning equally lay in leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day: Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back. I shall be telling this with a sigh somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I... I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference. Robert Frost, Author
