At 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 2, dozens of students and their families arrived at Camp Verde Middle School for the school’s annual Meet the Teacher Night.
As the evening sun kept temperatures in the mid 90s, teachers and other school staff invited people into air-conditioned rooms to discuss students’ schedules and a range of other topics from dress code to after-school activities.
The school’s new principal, Dawn Macy, Ph.D., was also in attendance, along with Vice Principal and Athletic Director Steve Stone and Sara Boland, the school’s counselor.
Macy said she is excited to be back in Camp Verde after living just outside of Boulder, Colorado, for many years.
“Camp Verde is my home,” she said. “I grew up here. I went to Beaver Creek for two years in seventh and eighth grade, then went to Camp Verde High School. Those years really changed my life.”
After graduating from CVHS, Macy attended Northern Arizona University before leaving for school in Colorado to finish her teaching education, which includes a master’s and doctorate in educational leadership from the University of Northern Colorado.
“[After graduating college] I was the assistant principal and principal at Longmont, just east of Boulder,” she said. “I was there for 22 years.”
Speaking to Macy, it’s apparent that her achievements in academia inform her goals for the school.
“I want to get to know the kids and start building relationships and getting them really focused and getting them to see themselves as great citizens and scholars,” she said. “I want to keep working on building a great campus with lots of love and camaraderie and excitement and fun, because school should be fun.”
One of the struggles Macy spoke about is staffing shortages.
“I officially started July 1 and at that time, we still needed to hire over half of the staff,” she said. “Since then, we’re almost down to no one [left to hire]. I think there will be more programs, great sports; I’d love to find an art teacher or a band teacher, we have an opening for either of those. I’m pretty big on having a well-rounded education. We really owe it to the kids. It’s a struggle right now, but we’ll work through it. It’ll make us stronger in the end.”
While there are still several positions that need to be filled, Macy will double as a language arts and social studies teacher.
While it may sound like an exhausting job to some, Macy is enthusiastic.
“We’re going to have fun,” she said. “I was a Language Arts teacher for years, it’s the greatest thing ever.”
“We’re going to raise the bar and we’re going to start doing really good things here,”Macy said. “It’s going to take us a long time, but I believe in these kids and these teachers and we need to have what we need to be where we should be, so when [the students] leave here they’ll be ready for high school and whatever they choose to do after that, hopefully continue on in a focused profession. I invite all of the community to come in and see our school. It’s beautiful and it’s a warm and welcoming place.”
