While 2012-13 will be my ninth academic year teaching 3-years-olds at Trinity, it also promises to be the most exciting year of my career.

Even though it is barely mid-summer (and I do love summer), I find myself dreaming of “Back to School.”

This is because I see that Trinity is ready to enter a new era of educational excellence, and I am certain that Trinity’s new headmaster, Les Hegwood, is the right man at the right time.

Mr. Hegwood holds a masters in curriculum and instruction from the University of Mississippi.

He’s from Jackson originally, and graduated from St. Andrews Episcopal School there. His vision for Trinity is to provide the best education possible for our children, which is in line with what every teacher and every parent at Trinity is striving for.

Although his first official day was June 1, he has been meeting with teachers and staff all summer, while working to design an integrated, advanced curriculum for our students.

I speak not only as a teacher, but also as a mom, when I tell you how confident the Trinity family is about Trinity’s future and what it means for our children.

My daughter Kailey is going into the ninth grade. We are thrilled with the education she has received and the experiences she has had thus far — like the recent cultural field trip to Puerto Rico and oceanography science field trip to the coast through USM.

One of our goals as teachers at Trinity is to promote education in general in our community. All of us want our children to have opportunity and the only way a parent can ensure a child’s success is by giving that child the best education possible — mind, body and spirit.

So while we strive to be the best, we also strive to encourage and support every teacher and every educational institution in our community.

There is nothing more important than educating our children.

I like what my colleague Linda Rodriquez, who teaches in our high school, has to say about being an educator. She believes that God doesn’t make “junk” and that here at Trinity, “each student has the opportunity to grow stronger, faster and smarter academically.”

She believes that her job is to “find a way to tap into each child’s inner genius and activate the spark that will ignite their desire to learn.”

Like Linda, I believe that, here at Trinity, we are creating life-long learners who can take the tools we give them and build a successful future.

Mr. Hegwood’s career as an academic and an educator demonstrates that he is serious about leading our school into a new era of excellence, and he is eager to be part of our local educational community.

Please join us at 5:30 p.m. Friday at the reception at Trinity Episcopal Church Parish Hall to welcome Mr. Hegwood and his family to Natchez! Childcare will be provided.

 

Skeeter Hutchins is a teacher at Trinity Episcopal Day School.