BY CLIFF SMELLEY
Telegraph Staff Writer
Crystal Williams wasn’t expecting to start two new jobs within the span of a year, but at least she doesn’t have to travel far.
Plus, it’s a step up and presents the chance one looks for as a school administrator.
Williams, after completing one year as the assistant principal at Bradford High School, has been announced as the new principal at Bradford Middle School. When asked what her reaction was to the news, she used words such as “shocked” as well as “honored.”
“I definitely wasn’t planning for this yet,” she said. “I loved the high school. We had such a great year, and there are great things ahead. We had a great team, but when the (BMS) opportunity came around, it was something that you couldn’t pass up.”
Approximately a mile separates BHS and BMS, so she had minimal distance to travel in setting up her new office. With the schools’ proximity to each other, Williams envisions maintaining a working relationship with BHS Principal Chris Coffey and others at the high school.
“We were joking that we were just going to go ahead and build a bridge across the street,” Williams said. “We definitely will continue to collaborate with each other on a regular basis. It’s really important to me that what we’re doing here (at BMS) is consistent with the goals at the high school.”
Making the right career choice
By becoming the new principal at BMS, Williams is making a return to grade levels she has experience with. As a youth, though, she wasn’t imagining being a part of educating students in any grade.
Williams said she was convinced as a young child that her future involved art. As she grew older, she fell in love with math and gave thought to becoming an architect.
“During junior year of high school, I actually shadowed a local architect in the Orange Park area,” said Williams, a Fleming Island High School graduate. “It was far from what I expected.”
The experience changed her course. She thought about teach math, something she was doing already through her high school’s Mu Alpha Theta tutoring program.
Still, she tried to talk herself out of going into teaching. She entered college with the plan of earning a business degree.
“I realized that I wasn’t going with my passion,” Williams said. “I wasn’t following my heart, so I switched to math. Everything felt at peace. I knew I was doing what I was supposed to do.”
Saint Leo University, which is where she earned her bachelor’s degree, offered her the chance to pre-intern one day a week in a classroom. The opportunity took her to different middle schools in Marion County.
Williams’ final internship, which was full-time, occurred at Belleview Middle School. It offered her more than she was expecting.
“I had a great internship teacher who really let me take over,” Williams said. “A lot of people, in their internships, don’t get to really take over. My intern teacher taught me and then let me try.”
Her eight-year teaching career began at the school where her full-time internship took place. It took nowhere near that long, though, for her to think about going into administration. She began work on her master’s degree after her second year of teaching.
In the two years prior to being hired as the assistant principal at BHS, Williams served as Liberty Middle School’s assistant principal of discipline.
The top leader
Williams now finds herself at the middle-school level again. She said some educators cringe when you say, “middle school,” but she’s always found those students to be a “fun group.”
“They are still kids, but they are finding themselves,” Williams said. “They want to be adults — they think they are adults — but they really do still care about what we (as adults) think. They still want the mentorships. They still want the connections.”
Williams, of course, knows the middle school years are so important to students and the rest of their school careers.
“If they didn’t do well in elementary, this is the opportunity for us to be able to change their mindset about school,” Williams said. “This is kind of that spot where they can go in either direction.
“We have the opportunity here to really help propel them in a positive direction.”
Her previous middle school experience didn’t have her sitting in the principal’s chair. She’s excited, but admitted it’s also a little scary.
“You are solely responsible for this school and these people and these kids,” Williams said. “I think the biggest fear is you don’t want to drop the ball. You want to make sure our students get the best opportunities they can.”
Williams said her experience working under Coffey at BHS will help her. He excelled at organization and interacting with people, Williams said, adding, “I can’t say enough great things about him. I’m really grateful I got to work with him this year. I appreciate all the opportunities he gave me and the mentorship and all that good stuff.”
New start
For the second straight year, Williams will be one of the new faces on her campus.
“I was joking about the fact that I was setting up an office again and having to learn people again,” she said. “It was like I had just really gotten to know everybody at the high school.”
When asked about her goals, Williams her top priority at BMS is to ensure that every student is receiving “standards-based, strong Tier 1 instruction.”
“Every student on this campus should have the opportunity to be exposed to content-rich tasks,” Williams said. “They need to be able to be challenged. They need to be able to be given the opportunity to excel.
“I do not believe in busy work. I do not believe in just putting a worksheet in front of a kid. I want Tier 1 instruction, which is the instruction that is happening in every class every day.”
Williams wants students to be offered a learning environment that they want to be a part of.
“I want our kids to want to be here,” she said. “I want it to be engaging, and I want it to be rigorous. I want them to be able to compete against other students in our state and in our country and to be able to be successful in their future endeavors.”
Of course, when it comes to educating the students, it’s important that everyone is on the same page. That’s part of any administrator’s job.
“It’s making sure that everything aligns and that teachers are not feeling they’re being pulled in 1,000 directions,” Williams said. “Our role is to make their job as easy as possible so they can focus their efforts on their lesson planning and their students’ achievement.
“We need to make sure that they are able to provide those students with that instruction that they need every day. We have to make sure we eliminate barriers that stand in their way.”
Williams wasn’t expecting to be one of the administrators at BMS, but she is honored to serve as the school’s principal and wholeheartedly believes that it was meant to be.
“God works in mysterious ways,” Williams said. “All of this was not part of (my) plan, but just the way everything has happened, I know that it is part of whatever He has planned for me.”
So, after a year’s time, Williams finds herself moving into another new office. She wants to continue to call the BMS principal’s office hers for years to come.
“Hopefully, I get to do this for a long time,” she said.
