Upon my return to Wilmington I planned to take a shot at retirement but found my active lifestyle was far to high gear to do that so I went to Hendrick to seek a job, thinking it might be fun to do something totally different.  Since this business is about forming relationships, meeting people, offering them a great product I found immediate success, made good money and enjoyed the business.  I learned a great deal about presenting a product, negotiating price and providing excellent customer service.  But, at heart, I am an educator and given the right chance I would enjoy the opportunity to use all I’ve learned in and out of the educational environment to help further the noble cause of educating young people.

I accepted this position because the ED was a friend and she was leading a large charter school (1000 students) with very little experience.  As an educational leader and consultant I was able to help develop the academic program for grades K-10, oversee curriculum development, supervise, instruct and mentor young teachers and serve as a mentor to the ED.  

Alan Hahn, the founder the the academies asked me to work with him for a year to raise funds, a task I was happy to take on.  My primary roles were establishing a solid and repeatable donor base, meet with them, present the needs of the schools and seek their financial support.  In the year I worked with Alan I was able to generate about $250,000 in donations, helping them prepare to move to better facilities and launch the second school, Academy 31.

I started this small educational consulting business as an aside in order to maximize my years of experience in every aspect of education. from 2014-2016 I was privileged to travel to Central and South America to assist in international schools.  The highlight of this time was the founding a private middle and high school for English speaking children in Bocas del Toro, Panama.  Bocas Academy was born with about 30 students, four teachers and myself as the administrator.  Today the school continues as an arm of the Tangerine Education Center in BDT, Panama.  I also had the chance to work with Give and Surf (a group of volunteers from the USA who would spend the morning working with schools and the afternoon surfing off Bastimentos Island.)  We had the opportunity to build facilities and train native teachers, establishing five schools for the indigenous people on the many islands of the archipelago of northeastern Panama.  My travels and consulting took me to Argentina. Brazil, Panama, Costa Rica and Mexico.  

As the HOS I oversaw the entire day to day operation of the school, cast the vision, led a faculty and staff of 75, planned and administered the annual budget in excess of $750,000, recruited, trained and mentored teachers, planned programs, was the educational leader, coordinated BOD meetings and activities, planned for growth in student body and facilities, was the “face” of the school in community activities and public relations, etc.  During my stay the school grew from 190 students to nearly 500, expanded facilities, staff and programs.  A full scale EC program, pre-school and early college programs were added.
NOTE: In the interest of being fully transparent, at the end of first semester of my fourth year there I resigned under pressure because of the progressive nature of my leadership.  This was a very conservative faith based school and my constant push for racial diversity among students and staff, gender diversity on the BOD as well as a drive to create a more interdenominational school ruffled the feathers of the BOD and I felt it best to resign rather than have a battle that would severely damage what we had worked to build.

Here I taught Social Studies, PE and religion classes.  I also served as the department chair for the PE Department, served as Assistant AD and coached boys and girls golf.

I went to this college of about 900 students to teach Physical Education/Health but also to serve as the Vice President for Student Life.  In this position I oversaw all aspects of the college that did not involve academics or finances.  The included, but was not limited to, dorm life, commuter life, student activities, discipline, athletics, peer mentoring, welcome week activities, religious activities, student retention, staff recruiting and training, budget preparation and administration of a Student Life budget of over $1.2 million.  While there I also served as an adjunct professor at the University of Tampa.  Our greatest achievement was the development of a self perpetuating peer mentoring program in which each upperclassmen mentored 2-3 freshman students with the goal of increased freshman retention.  After three years that retention rate improved from 46% to over 70%.

I taught, PE, English and Social Studies.  I coached varsity basketball and golf for boys and girls.  In my last three years I served as Elementary Principal where I was charged with improving parent relations.

This was a one year commitment to assist several families in the establishment of a new private school in Southport.  Honestly, I did everything from going door to door recruiting students, hired and trained all teachers, subbed for sick teachers, cleaned the school, cut the grass and taught PE.  That school is still in existence today and one of the parents of our first kindergarten students is the HOS.

While here I taught pretty much anything I was needed to teach, coached three sports, drove a bus, served as AD and then high school principal.  Sadly, the school began to decline and closed right after I left.

I taught PE, English and Social Studies, coached basketball, baseball and cross country.  I served as assistant AD, then AD in my last two years.  This school merged with another private school two years after I left.  That school then closed its doors in 1991.