BY CLIFF SMELLEY
Karen Brugh may be starting a new job for the second straight year, but with it comes familiarity.
Brugh, who began her career as an administrator as the assistant principal at Bradford Middle School last year, is now serving in that same role at Bradford Elementary School.
“It is (a new start),” Brugh said, “but it’s almost like coming back to my roots.”
Those roots she referred to were first established at the elementary level, which is where her teaching career began.
Also, her career in the Bradford County School District began at Southside Elementary School, which has since undergone a name change and a location change as the new Bradford Elementary on 144th Street.
The new school, of course, is quite different from the old Southside Elementary she taught at. It also provides Brugh with a bigger campus than the one she was used to at BMS.
“I remember my first week here (at Bradford Elementary). I think I may have gotten lost a time or two,” Brugh said, adding, “I’m definitely getting my steps in over here.”
Brugh said BMS made great gains last year in improving its state grade from a D to a C and is excited to see how the school continues to progress under its new administrative team of Principal Crystal Williams and Assistant Principal Rob Charles. She’ll miss out on being personally involved in any future gains at BMS, but she’s now at a school that has made incredible improvement the last couple of years, improving from a D to a C and then to a B this past year.
“Watching Bradford Elementary last year, even in my middle school capacity, it was encouraging to see their dedication to one mind and one goal in getting to where they wanted to be,” Brugh said, adding, “I am super excited to carry on the foundation that has been laid here.”
Bradford Elementary was not far from being an A school, so obviously the goal is to keep working and improving.
“We’ve got to get back in the car and start driving again,” Brugh said.
It’s a big car. It would be obvious to think of the front and passenger seats occupied by Brugh and Principal Cassie Melvin, but they’re just two of many who factor into the school’s success.
“It’s not a one-person job,” Brugh said. “It’s everyone working together to get where we need to go.”
A love of learning
Brugh figured out that where she needed to go was into education. It seemed a natural career choice for someone who loved learning growing up. She credited the “wonderful” teachers she had for fostering that love.
It was while she was a student at Clay High School that Brugh definitively decided to go into education. Though she described herself as a “homebody,” she traveled quite a distance to go to college. She attended Tennessee Temple University in Chattanooga.
She returned home to Clay County after earning her degree and began teaching at the elementary school she attended as a student. In fact, she was able to work with the teacher who taught her in first grade.
“It was an awesome experience going back to my elementary school,” Brugh said. “I actually taught third grade in the very same classroom that I was in in third grade.”
Brugh and her family, which consists of husband, Larry, and children Jonathan (2022 Bradford High School graduate), Jacob (2023 BHS graduate), Jeffrey (BHS junior) and Katherine (BHS freshman), moved to Bradford County. She continued to teach in Clay County for a couple of years before joining the Bradford School District.
As you might expect from someone who has a love for learning, Brugh wasn’t content to teach just one grade level. She taught at every elementary school level.
“I was just a constant, eager learner,” Brugh said. “If I was mastering one grade level, I wanted to move to another grade level.”
She eventually wound up teaching sixth and seventh grades at BMS. Brugh said she wanted to teach beyond the elementary level because as someone who is a “constant, eager learner,” she was looking to take her career beyond teaching. She wanted to go into administration and felt teaching at the middle school level would be beneficial.
It made for a smooth transition from the classroom into administration because Brugh’s first administrative job was at BMS, where she had been teaching.
Being an AP
One of the things Brugh learned in her year as assistant principal at BMS came through the encouragement of BMS Principal Ben Hawkins.
“He had confidence in me and told me to trust my gut in my decision making,” she said. “That helped enable me to make decisions and be effective in that position.”
Brugh said and Hawkins were good complements to each other. She laughed when describing how Hawkins sometimes would go along with something she wanted to do, even if he wasn’t too sure about it himself.
“I think sometimes he might have looked at me like, ‘We’re doing what?’ But he went along with my shenanigans,” Brugh said. “Anything that was for the kids or to build morale among the staff or to make connections with the community. I was appreciative of that.”
Brugh said Hawkins was always approachable, which made an impression on her as a first-year administrator.
“I knew I could always go to him if I didn’t understand something or I needed to question something,” she said. “He was always open to anything I needed to ask. Even if it was something I didn’t necessarily agree with or understand, he was very open to me coming to him.”
That’s how Brugh wants to be for teachers at Bradford Elementary.
“I tell them that my door is always open,” she said. “They can come in and kick, scream, yell, talk, pray — whatever they need to do. I’ve said to them, ‘Then I’ll dust you off and send you back out.’”
Brugh said she can still relate to what teachers are going through, having been out of the classroom for only one year. Through that knowledge, she’ll support teachers any way she can.
“I’ll do everything I can to break down any walls that I can for them or offer any support for them that they might need in their classrooms,” Brugh said.
Brugh said that she wants teachers to be honest with her. So far, they’ve proven to be just that in response to surveys Brugh sent out shortly after being named Braford Elementary’s assistant principal. She asked teachers what they expected out of her as assistant principal.
“They were very honest in their answers,” Brugh said, adding, “I appreciate that they were. I welcome that always — for everyone to be honest.”
The year ahead
Anticipation.
If there’s a word to describe what Brugh is feeling right now as teachers have been trickling in and out, preparing for the start of school, that is it.
“Watching them come in and getting their classrooms set up is exciting because the new year is about to begin,” Brugh said.
She looks forward to working alongside Melvin, whom she describes as a “phenomenal leader” who’s able to pass her passion for the school doing well to others at the school and in the community.
Brugh witnessed the start of the school’s improvement when she began her Bradford teaching career at Southside Elementary. She said Melvin and former Assistant Principal Laurén Morgan (who’s now the principal at Starke Elementary) were determined to cause a culture shift at the school.
“They did whatever it took to get there,” Brugh said of ascending in the state’s school-grade system. “Now, the staff and the students have tasted and seen that they can get there. I think once you have tasted something and seen that you can do it, it gives you that much more confidence that you can go farther.”
And the school does still have farther to go.
“If we hit that A, I may just do a flip,” Brugh said. “We are certainly going for it. We know what is working and what we need to do to continue the drive. With a few tweaks here and there, I think we’ll get there.”
