Carmen Jones has her dream job
The Pepperell Primary principal says that she is “blessed beyond measure.”
The philosopher Confucius said, “Choose a job you love, and you will never work a day in your life.”
“I have to pinch myself,” said Carmen Jones, principal of Pepperell Primary School. “I’ve pinched myself for the last 32 years — to believe that I’m doing what I really wanted to do.”
Carmen Jones has worked her entire career as an educator for Floyd County, and each one of those 32 years has been spent at Pepperell Primary. She performed her student teaching at Pepperell Primary (then Pepperell Elementary) and taught first and second grade for 15 years there before becoming the school’s assistant principal. This year marks her eighth year as principal where she is responsible for about 550 children. And each time she relates a story about one of them a smile crosses her face and her eyes sparkle.
“Aren’t (the children) amazing?” Jones said. “It’s amazing. I am blessed beyond measure to look in their faces and know I can make a difference in them. There’s not one child in this school that is treated any differently from another one.”
She praises her staff for the successes of her school and the great spirit for which the young Pepperell Dragons are known.
When students line up to go into the cafeteria each day, they stand right outside Jones’ office. She looks up and several are enthusiastically waving at her — including her own grandson Chase, who started pre-k this year. It is extra special that her grandson is part of her daily routine.
She couldn’t be prouder to that he attends the same school that she once attended as a child, as well as her own children.
“Having him here with me and knowing he is being educated in the same building … that he’s walking those same hallways — it’s more than pride,” Jones said. “I don’t think that there are words for it.”
Chase rides to school with her every day. He hops out of the backseat of her SUV with his backpack and walks alongside her to the door.
Jones said one of the best aspects having Chase with her is to be able to spot him in a crowd of other children and to watch him interact with his schoolmates, to catch him smiling.
“And to hear his giggle in the hall — I can hear him,” she said. “Just hearing that sound I have to freeze for just a minute. I know it’s Chase — I can hear it over the other children. That is just the icing on the cake.”
When he started school, Jones said that Chase some of the same detachment issues that many little children do — not wanting to leave the comfort of the adults they are used to being around.
She credits the Pepperell teachers for helping him overcome his hesitation and separation anxiety, including his classroom teachers Michelle Starling and Crystal Colston.
They would deflect his attention elsewhere if he started to get anxious over leaving his “Ama,” which is what he calls his grandmother. Chase has learned to carve out his own space with teachers and friends.
“He knows where I am, and he knows this is my office,” Jones said. “He doesn’t take advantage of it. He doesn’t have that in him.”‘
Chase does have moments — like every other child — where he isn’t quite ready to start his school day.
Jones remembers one instance in particular where Chase walked into her office before the official start of class time.
“‘I’m not going to pre-k today,’” she said he announced to her.
He literally kicked off his shoes, undressed down to his underclothes, grabbed a book and laid down on the sofa in her office — just like he would do at home.
“When it was time [to go to his classroom], Mrs. Colston came by and told him to get dressed, and he did,” Jones said. “He really doesn’t want to miss what’s going on down there.”
Jones said that before school started that Chase being so young and entering school was a concern for her. Was it the right thing to do? Did he need to wait a year so he would be more ready for the social aspect of school?
“But after years and years of experience, I knew that he would be OK,” she said.
Even though he is special because he is her grandson, Jones said that he is not treated any differently.
“It’s not like he’s glowing and everyone else is gloomy,” she said. “He is one of the other students and he shines like the other students shine.”
“Great things are happening here,” Jones said. “And all of these children are loved.”