‘Coming full circle’
From Northside student to principal
Jerrie Price has come full circle since she started kindergarten at Northside Elementary School 48 years ago this fall.
Price attended Siloam Springs Schools from kindergarten through high school and has spent her 25-year career in the district, first working as a high school science teacher and coach, then as an assistant principal. In May, she was named principal of Northside Elementary School, which serves prekindergarten and kindergarten students.
“I really believe that time at Northside was really formative for me as far as the trajectory I was set on to become a teacher,” Price said.
When Price attended Northside Elementary School, it served students in kindergarten through fifth grade. Price loved school because it was a place where she felt loved, cared for and safe. The teachers during her early years at the school set her on a path toward a career in education, which was solidified in middle and high school, she said.
“I think that was all set here at this place and I feel like the teachers that I had along the way in kindergarten, first grade, second grade, third grade, really impacted me and set a trajectory that was lifechanging,” Price said. “So to be at the high school for 25 years, and then move to where it all started for me, feels like this full-circle life event.
“To come back to the place where the trajectory for my entire career was set is a really neat feeling for me; to invest in the kids that are the age that I was when I started here and to continue the culture of kids being taken care of and cared for and feeling successful and setting trajectories for kids to love school is so important to me.”
After graduating from Siloam Springs High School in 1990, Price went to the University of Central Arkansas for several years before finishing her education at John Brown University. She started teaching science at the high school in 1995 and worked as a volleyball, softball and soccer coach. When her children were born, Price stopped coaching and went back to graduate school, becoming an assistant principal at the high school 11 years ago.
Outside of school, Price enjoys spending time with her husband Danny of 20 years, and their two children, who are both students at Siloam Springs High School. In her spare time, Price is a beekeeper
My goal in being a principal is to create an environment where two things happen — where teachers are supported in a way that allows them to support our kids to the fullest extent that is needed for the kids to be successful and then to support students directly when needed. Jerrie Price Northside Elementary School Principal