***This article is the first of a two-part series about Irving Elementary School’s principal transition written by Chase Palm, a participant in The Kewanee Voice Student Journalism Program, funded by the Harry Anderson Memorial Trust.
Students at Irving Elementary School will say goodbye to their principal soon. Principal Dr. Tamara Brown will retire at the end of the 2023-2024 school year.
“I always thought I was going to be a lawyer,” said Brown.
Brown will retire this May after serving as principal for 18 years at the Kewanee elementary school.
“My dad would discourage me from that because he said you always make an enemy if you think about it. You either win for your client or you lose for your client. If you win for your client, the other person hates you, if you lose for your client, your client hates you,” she said.
During Brown’s time at Irving, she made no enemies. Instead, she made the building welcoming and a place where students and staff wanted to be. She also welcomed Amanda Minx as a third grade teacher when she first joined Irving’s staff. Minx is set to move into the position of Irving’s new principal next school year.
Brown feels mixed emotions about her retirement, but instead of dwelling on what’s to come, she has decided to look back on her journey and the memories she’s made as the Irving principal.
Brown grew up in Mattoon and studied at Eastern Illinois University to become a high school English teacher. She remembered her mother going back to school to become a teacher when Brown was just 10 years old and she had conversations with a friend of her father’s who was also a teacher. Both inspired Brown to pursue a career path in education.
Brown still remembers the difficulty of finding a job during her initial job search.
“At that time it was a little bit harder to get a job. There was like 125 to 150 candidates for jobs that you would interview with,” Brown said.
After earning a position teaching English at the high school level, Brown became fascinated with computers. At the time, computers were fairly new.
“I loved them, I loved working with them, I loved getting the kids to work with them,” she said.
Years later, Brown went back to school and finished a degree in building computers, received a Microsoft certification as a web engineer, and was hired as a technology director in Bradford.
After earning another master’s degree, this time in education administration, Brown interviewed for the principal position at Irving, where she used her teaching and technology knowledge to create lasting relationships and make Irving a much more tech-oriented school.
“What makes my day everyday is seeing the students and the teachers. It’s like a second family here, but more than that, just watching the learning take place,” Brown said. “I feel like the rapport I have with this faculty and the comfort level we have with each other now at this point.”
Brown said her attachment to Irving is so strong that she sometimes pulls into Irving at 5 a.m. instead of her gym, as if her school had a gravitational pull.
“It’s that kind of thing. It just draws me here everyday,” Brown said.
For Brown, a strong principal reassures her elementary staff that they are never alone and never left unsupported.
“When you’re in an elementary building, the environment is so different. First of all, you’re with the same kids all day long and that can be wearing and tearing on just as a person, especially if you have a student that is constantly raising their hand, out of their seat, running around the classroom, whatever. Then also, it’s because scheduling doesn’t allow you to ever really meet with your colleagues except for before or after school. You don’t have the mid-day support that a junior high or high school has,” Brown said
That’s where a principal comes in, she said.
“So you need someone there that can support you all day long, and I feel that is a principal’s role as part of this building is to be here to support the teachers all day long. It doesn’t mean take care of everything for them. It means support them, troubleshoot with them, talk to them, help them figure out what’s next or what they can do or what I can be doing in support of them,” she said.
Brown said what’s needed is a “high energy, understanding person as a principal” to whom students and teachers can turn.
Brown spoke about how being principal allows her to create connections with students that differ from their relationships with their teachers.
“The teachers are so responsible for everything, but I’m like kind of the Disney person. I get to have fun with them, but on the other hand, I also get to reign down on some kind of consequence when they overstep,” the principal said.
Looking ahead, Brown also reflected on the advantage of Minx coming back to lead Irving, the place where her teaching career started.
“The home school that you start in as a teacher is really your level, I mean, they’re your people,” Brown said. “Going from 7:30 to 3:30 as a classroom teacher with the responsibility of 20, 22 kids and their learning and their skills and their behaviors and all the things that happen during the day for a teacher. I don’t have that experience, so I’m not as able to empathize with the teachers as much as she can, and I think that piece will make her a better principal,” Brown added.
Brown emphasized how approachable and trustworthy Minx is, crucial traits for an effective principal.
Finally, Brown spoke of her legacy at Irving. She feels that the implementation of new technology that she headed up will last far into the future. She used her experience as a technology director to further enhance learning for her students. She also made sure that she trained all of her staff to use the technology.
During her retirement, Brown hopes to spend more time with her family and travel to see her three kids. Part of the travel plan also includes helping her 84-year old mother fulfill some of the items on her bucket list with trips to see the Northern Lights and the wild ponies off the coast of Virginia. That said, she will never forget her Irving family and the impact they had on her for the past 18 years.
Look for part two of the series, an interview with Amanda Minx, to be published by The Kewanee Voice soon.
