Leading a K-8 School with Over 700 Students

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Two schools in one building. Over 700 students. Around 100 adults to support and coach. That’s not a leadership thought experiment, that’s a normal day for Hollie Walters, principal of Dooly K-8 Academy in rural Dooly County, Georgia. We sit down with Hollie for a grounded conversation about what school leadership really looks like when the work is big, the community is tight-knit, and every decision ripples through an entire district. 

Website: spotlight4success.com 

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_01 (00:06):
Welcome to Spotlight for Success with American Book
Company.
I'm your host, Derek Ventosi,and here we are at the Summer
Gale in Jekyll Island, Georgia.
Today we have our special guestwith us here today.
Her name is Holly Walters.
She is the principal for theDooley K through 8 Academy, and
we're so thankful to have youhere today.

SPEAKER_00 (00:23):
Thank you.
I'm happy to be here.

SPEAKER_01 (00:25):
Absolutely.
And uh what brings you here toGale?

SPEAKER_00 (00:28):
Well, uh I'm I always come to Gale as a leader,
a school leader.
Um, I come here to learn, grow,uh, network, talk to other
people, find out what otherschools are doing so that I can
help to make uh the experiencesfor the students that I serve
better as well.

SPEAKER_01 (00:45):
Amazing.
So tell me a little bit aboutyour position as uh principal in
Dooley County.

SPEAKER_00 (00:49):
Okay, so I am the K8 principal, and what that means
is that I'm principal of twoschools.
So we have two schools that'slocated in one building, but
it's still two separate schools.
However, we try to operate asone school, one system.
Our school serves two-thirds,over two-thirds of the students
in Dooley County, so it's a bigposition uh that entails a lot.

(01:10):
I supervise uh around a hundredum adults and um teachers,
adults, faculty, and staff, andwe have uh over 700 students at
my school.

SPEAKER_01 (01:19):
Wow, that is a large school.
Yeah, what's your favorite partabout being a principal?

SPEAKER_00 (01:23):
Oh, I love um just the uh spontaneous, uh
spontaneous adventures that wehave each and every day.
So you never know what you'regonna run into every day.
Um I do love seeing studentsgrow, students learn.
I like seeing the light bulb gooff when students grasp concepts
and learn things, but and I alsolove to see our teachers, our

(01:46):
faculty and staff grow becausewe've seen a lot of that here
lately.

SPEAKER_01 (01:49):
Absolutely.
And you mentioned early earlierthat you have used American Book
Company books.
What has your experience beenwith them and did you see test
improvement?

SPEAKER_00 (01:57):
So we've used them before.
At one point we just orderedbooks just to because it looked
like a good resource and wedidn't implement them, you know,
as we should have.
This year we have been able tohire a full-time RAP teacher for
our middle school, and we haveEIP teachers uh for our
elementary school, and so wehave this year purchased the

(02:17):
fast break books that will helpwith closing gaps, remediation,
and to give them anotherresource to use something
different from what they'realready using in their core
instruction for the grade level.

SPEAKER_01 (02:28):
Awesome.
I love that.

SPEAKER_00 (02:29):
So we anticipate, um we do anticipate for students to
grow even more.
Uh, we know that it's a resourcethat is proven to work, we've
seen it before, we've looked atyour results and your data, and
so we're just excited about whatit will do for our students.

SPEAKER_01 (02:44):
We we love to hear that, and we're so glad that you
have become part of our company.
Um tell me a little bit aboutDooley County.
I don't know much about it.

SPEAKER_00 (02:53):
So Dooley County is a rural county.
It's located, it's in southwestGeorgia, it's uh 20 miles from
Houston County, about 10 minutesfrom Cordille, Crisp County.
It's very small.
Uh big landmass area, a lot ofag agricultural area there, um,
but very small, not a lot ofbusinesses.
Um we hail uh we have uh MyraMixon, who is uh Food Network,

(03:18):
uh Food Network, Network Yes,Food Network has deemed him the
barbecue champion of the world.
And so they have in DooleyCounty something that's known as
the big pig jig in the dillydally, and it's every year, and
it's a big barbecue competition,and he actually teaches and
trains people on how to how tobarbecue well.
And so it is that's that'sDooley County.

(03:41):
It's big agland, biggestproducer of cotton, um just a
big rural area full of peoplewith heart.

SPEAKER_01 (03:51):
Yeah, I love that.
That that sounds reallydelicious too.

SPEAKER_00 (03:54):
So I know, right?

SPEAKER_01 (03:55):
Yeah, I got we got I gotta try that for sure.

SPEAKER_00 (03:57):
And I'll say he he's uh uh Mr.
Mix, and he's also the mayor ofone of the towns in Dooley
County, and he supports our ourlocal schools as well in
different ways.

SPEAKER_01 (04:07):
Man, what what can you not do?
Wow.

SPEAKER_00 (04:09):
Right.

SPEAKER_01 (04:10):
Um uh do you have any last words for the Gale
community?

SPEAKER_00 (04:14):
Uh I will just say thank you to uh the planners,
the committees that plan Gale.
It's just a wonderfulexperience.
This is my fourth year comingand fifth year coming, I'm
sorry, and I have enjoyed everyminute of it, learned a lot, and
look forward to coming everyyear.

SPEAKER_01 (04:30):
Well, thank you for coming to our podcast, Holly.
Thank you.
Thank you for tuning in andpeace out.

SPEAKER_00 (04:34):
Thank you.