Hanahan Middle School's first year principal brings new initiatives - Live 5 News WCSC

HANAHAN, S.C. (WCSC) - Hanahan Middle School is hiring a new, first year principal from within the Berkeley County School District.

Kelli Roberson has been with Berkeley County Schools for 20 years, and the district says she starts her first school year as a principal on Monday.

Roberson did her student practicum at Hanahan Middle when she was a student at the College of Charleston. So she says her new role as principal is a full circle moment.

This year she’s launching “flex time.” she says it’s an allotted amount of time after lunch for intentional and purposeful intervention. This allows teachers to assess where students are in their education, as well as socially and emotionally. Roberson says it also gives teachers time to discuss areas they would like to improve.

The Hanahan Middle School guidance department is also implementing what they call minute meetings, Roberson says. Guidance counselors will meet with every student for at least one minute at the beginning of the year, making sure kids have a one-on-one conversation with a counselor.

“Well, for some of our kids, they haven’t been inside a school building in 18 months. So, it’s just, you know, not only are we going to be thinking about their academics, but we’re having to re-teach the norms of being around people and being connected to others,” Roberson said. “I’m sure they’ve missed that, I think teachers, adults missed it when we were not in a building with one-another, so it’s just a way to continue to build those connections.”

She adds that there are some learning methods that were advanced during the pandemic that they plan to keep in place.

“I think just using technology as a means of, especially when students are out and absent, knowing that we can still provide that instruction when students aren’t present in the building, whatever that reason might be,” Roberson said. “And it’s also just using the tools that are available just to make sure all students have access to notes and any kind of resources they can use to go back and re-learn something or just as a reminder, it’ll help them do the work that they need to do.”

Roberson says there’s a lot of history and community support around Hanahan Middle School which is encouraging for this first-time principal.

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Hanahan Middle School's first year principal brings new initiatives - Live 5 News WCSC
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