BY TRISTA HAVNER | PHOTOS BY COURTNEY SEARCY

Featured in vol 7, issue 1: Jackson Grown

I sat in her office on a crisp, spring Tuesday morning. Sitting across from Mia Moore in her office at Rose Hill, I watched as she fielded emails and requests on her radio to assist teachers and monitor students. She has books piled up on every surface (most of which she has read, no doubt) and paperwork waiting for her signature. She has schedules and cafeteria plans and notebooks full of notes she has taken to help her do her job better, but she also has toothpaste and an extra pair of shoes and a hairbrush. Pieces of her professional and personal life inhabit the same space, serving as a tangible symbol of what it takes to be an educator.

I had just followed her around the school, trying to keep up with her brisk pace as she greeted every single staff member and student with a masked smile and kind words. She knew everyone by name and she attended to each student as if their needs were her only priority. The students were eager to see her, talk with her, and show her what they were working on in their classrooms. It was clear that they basked in her attention, and she returned their admiration with beaming words of approval and kindness. On the heels of an arduous year, it was refreshing to be in this space and to watch as children and teachers and administrators and assistants carried on with school business as usual. A tone has been set in this place. A tone of community and support that, in my experience, usually comes from the top down.

This came as no surprise to me because I know the principal. If there has ever been a person who exhibits care and high expectations and quiet strength, it is Mia Moore. I met Mia when we were both young teachers at Jackson Central-Merry High School over ten years ago. We had been tasked with the difficult and rewarding job of stepping into a “failing school.” Our achievement scores were low, attendance was abysmal, and the perception of the community at large was… lacking. I could write another extensive piece on the work we did there and the amazing people I was honored to work beside (really, it was the best job I have ever had), and Mia would be one of the standouts in that piece. She showed up to work every single day ready. Ready to teach, ready to discipline, ready to meet physical and emotional needs. She expected excellence from her students and she almost always got it. She was always positive, always smiling. If she had a bad day, you never knew it. When I got to work in a breakout group or on a committee with her, I truly felt valued as a woman and an educator. So, as I sat in her office at Rose Hill, the school where she is currently principal, it seemed fitting that the professional and positive environment I remembered from her classroom all those years ago carried over into her new position.

Mia is a Jackson native with deep roots in education. Both her grandmother and great-grandmother were teachers, each committing over thirty years to the craft. Her grandfather was a professor of French and Biology at Lane College and her great-uncle was the principal of Merry High before Merry and Central High were consolidated. If legacy is to mean anything, Mia is walking the path blazed by her predecessors, carrying on the heritage of service — but she almost did not choose that path. Mia decided as a high school senior that she would not be following in the footsteps of her family. Her grandmother felt that education and the requirements for teachers were changing, and she would present salaries from teaching positions and other jobs, specifically in the medical field, so that Mia could compare before she made any final decisions. The medical field seemed like a good choice, and Mia set out to pursue a career in dentistry.

Mia left Jackson to attend the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga with no intentions of returning home as a teacher, but she kept finding herself in positions where she was serving and teaching. Even though she made the choice to pursue another way, a career in education was pursuing her. She graduated with a degree in biology and moved home to begin her career, where she secured a science job at Tigrett Middle School teaching science and coaching soccer. From there, she moved on to teach biology at Humboldt High School before finally settling into her role at Jackson Central-Merry under Eric Jones’ leadership. Unbeknownst to her, this position would usher Mia into new places and opportunities.

At the end of the 2014 school year, Dr. Jones and a team of teachers from JCM announced that they would be moving on to a school district in Huntsville, Alabama, with the hopes of also moving that district in a positive direction. Attendance at JCM was much better, the graduation rate had been drastically improved and relationships had been built with both students and the community. It was time for this team to go out and do it again. Mia was part of this team of excellent educators.

When Mia arrived in Huntsville, she was immediately moved from her position in the classroom and put into an administrative position through the “Teacher on Special Assignment” program. Honestly, that was inevitable. Her determination and strength and leadership skills were too great for her not to be in a position where she can teach and lead others to do and be the same. Through that program, she earned a degree in Educational Administration and served as administrator for the duration of her tenure in Huntsville. As time went on, she began to hear the siren song of home calling out to her. Huntsville was great, but she was a woman alone in a city that was not her own. She did not have a church family or a community of people to lean on to help her with funding for school projects or any number of programs that schools need to function. She even missed running into familiar faces at the grocery store and being able to say to a student “I know your momma and will call her right now” with authority. The idea of doing the work she was doing in Huntsville back at home in Jackson grew more attractive by the day.

So Mia came home, and she settled into a role as an assistant principal at North Side High School. That position opened her eyes to the many moving parts of running a school and gave her the skills she needed to manage people and situations on a day-to-day basis. As she was preparing to go into her third year at North Side, she just “felt in her spirit” that a change was coming her way, and in July of 2020, she received news that she would be moving into the principal position at Rose Hill, a school that serves students ranging from Pre-K through eighth grade. For those of you who are not in education, being hired into a principal position in mid-July, with only two weeks to learn the school, solidify staff and schedules and establish a culture and expectations is work. Hard, exhausting, wonderful work. Couple that with a year marked by unprecedented methods of educating students and pandemic demands and protocols and attendance issues due to said pandemic and what remains is a very difficult first year as a head principal. When I walked through the doors at Rose Hill, the only indication that this year has been different at all were the masks worn and the distance kept. Every other facet of a successful school — the warm greetings, the spirit of cooperation, the focused students, the diligent teachers — were all present. And that is no coincidence. That is the leadership and support of a principal who is building community.

“sometimes things come the tough way, but when they come this way, you can be confident that you can handle anything”

MIA MOORE

When I sat down to talk with Mia, who had kicked off her classy sneakers and started to slow down only a little, I asked if she has seen any positives come from this year. The trials and the hardships of this year are easy to identify, but Mia, as I expected, fixed her gaze on what has been good. She said she felt supported during her first year as principal, and explained over and over again how thankful she was that Dr. King gave her the opportunity to be in this position. She was nothing but complimentary of her Assistant Principal, Melissa Helton, and her Instructional Coach, Jeannette Coleman, praising them for their hard work this year and for setting a precedent of growth that she has worked to continue. She has also seen growth from her students, both academically and emotionally. She has witnessed students identify their own needs and advocate for themselves. She has listened to students and provided the trust and safe space for them to feel confident in her support. She showed up for these students in a very difficult year and made them feel welcome and loved. She has built a community with her students and staff. According to Mia, “sometimes things come the tough way, but when they come this way, you can be confident that you can handle anything”.

As we wrapped up our time together, I felt I would be remiss if I did not ask Mia how we, as a community, can be more involved in the lives of students and teachers. She had a wealth of ideas on how to support and care for school populations, and her ideas centered around one theme: presence. Showing up. Financial support is fantastic and appreciated, but real change and real impact is made when we, as a community, are willing to be present.

“Imagine for a moment the impact of adults in our community showing up to meet with children right where they are? Entering into their spaces and encouraging them to grow and laughing with them and building relationships and having faith in their abilities to achieve? We might just lay a foundation of confidence and security that allows these students to try and fail and try again because they know that they have a support system that will catch them and guide them back home.”

TRISTA HAVNER

We may not all have the money to give or the skills it takes to teach and facilitate a classroom full of students, but we all have time. We can all devote an hour or two a week to reading with a student. Mia stressed that literacy is the key to student success both in school and beyond, and time spent reading with a child, working on vocabulary and fluency, can change the trajectory of their future. Imagine for a moment the impact of adults in our community showing up to meet with children right where they are? Entering into their spaces and encouraging them to grow and laughing with them and building relationships and having faith in their abilities to achieve? We might just lay a foundation of confidence and security that allows these students to try and fail and try again because they know that they have a support system that will catch them and guide them back home.

Mia also stressed the importance of remembering our teachers. Teaching can become a thankless job where growth is expected but support can wane. She suggested adopting a school and writing the teachers letters of encouragement. Sending them candy or small supplies they might need. Any recognition that they are valuable and necessary to our success as a community could be the spark they need to press on and in. Showing up for students and teachers is work we can all do.

“For these are all our children; we will all profit by or pay for what they become.”

JAMES BALDWIN

It was nearly lunchtime and the well-oiled machine of the cafeteria schedule was set to start any minute. The slow stream of emails and messages she had been fielding during our chat increased and it was clear that Mia was needed. As I was looking around at her office one last time, I was struck by the quotes of empowerment and encouragement on the wall. I was compelled to ask her about her philosophy of education. I wasn’t sure why I needed to know what she thought about why education matters then, but now I know. It’s so I could share it with you, now. Mia lives and works by a quote by James Baldwin. It says, “For these are all our children; we will all profit by or pay for what they become.”

Mia knows that she is not just a principal. She does not just show up to work to corral these children into obedience and hope that they learn something in the process. She is sowing seeds of community, practicing a “we above me” philosophy that overflows onto every person who she comes into contact with every single day. She knows the work matters and that the effects of presence and community will multiply exponentially. Raising up a generation of students who know how to advocate for themselves and each other, who have the skillset to persevere when hardships emerge, who seek the good of their community over their own personal good — that is the work Mia Moore shows up to do.

Trista Havner is a born and raised Jackson girl, a mom, wife, and small business owner. She and her husband, Charlie, have a charming local family business and are passionate about the history there. Trista can be found putting together frames in her family’s shop or lettering anything that will hold still. Her love for home grows daily, and she is passionate about being an agent of growth and positive change in her beloved Hub City.

Courtney Searcy is the Program Director of Our Jackson Home at theCO. Jackson became home after she graduated from Union University in 2014, where she studied Graphic Design and Journalism. She thinks the best things in life are porch swings, brunch, art, music, and friends to share it all with.

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