A Day in the Life of an Elementary School Principal

Bearing a warm smile, Principal Knezevic of Holly Grove Elementary walked through the halls of her school and greeted every student and teacher she passed with a friendly hello.

“Hey Principal K!” they all chimed back.

“I get up happy in the morning that I’m coming to work,” she said.

Holly Grove Elementary School is in its 11th year as a year-round Wake County public school. Kathy Knezevic has been the head principal for three years, managing 1,162 children and 80 staff members.

Kathy Knezevic grew up in Greece and moved to the U.S. when she was 17. She initially wanted to pursue economics but after her mother told her she would be a wonderful teacher, she switched paths. She said her Greek background has helped shape her teaching style.

“Being Greek, the Greeks started the education system, so I think it was instilled in me growing up that the only thing, if anything, that we can give to our kids is education,” Knezevic said. “But, I came from a very homogeneous place. In Greece, we all had the same religion, same background, same language, so for me it was an eye-opener to go into a school where such discrepancy existed--the socio-economic, the cultural part of it.”

After receiving her masters in school administration from North Carolina State University, she worked in three different schools in Wake County before starting at Holly Grove: Davis Drive Elementary, Mills Park Elementary, and Washington Elementary.

“Every school I’ve been in in Wake County has been very different as far as the demographics and the needs, but just as challenging and wonderful as the students learn and grow,” Knezevic said.

Principal Knezevic said there was a moment she knew she was in the right career path after a parent asked her to help fill out a form to enroll her child in school.

“Afterwards, she told me, ‘I’m illiterate,’ and she couldn’t read the registration form for her kid, to fill it in,” Knezevic said. “And I just--my gosh--I know multiple languages, and it’s not even my mother language, and there are people that can’t pick up a newspaper and can’t read to fill out applications for jobs, and that just kind of solidified for me the importance of education.”

She said the exciting part of her job is that each day she comes into work not knowing what to expect from the day.

“Our day is very fluid, very changing, because we deal with babies and sometimes it’s days full of discipline and sometimes it’s days full of parent meetings, sometimes--we don’t have very many quiet days, but once in awhile, we have those too--and you know, we’ll take it,” Knezevic said. “It’s a busy place.”

She has what she calls a “meat and potatoes” way of managing her teachers. She doesn’t try to micromanage.

“My philosophy is, when I come in for an announced observation, it’s like I’m coming to your house for dinner,” Knezevic said. “And when you know I’m coming, I expect the china, the silver, crystal, you know, five course meal. When I’m unannounced, I want meat and potatoes. I want to come in and see what you do every day for those babies, and I’m a firm believer that this is sacred, what we do, and I don’t take it lightly.”

Assistant Principal Nichole McCullers said Principal Knezevic is a joy to work with.

“She is amazing, and the kids love her- especially her frequent flyers,” McCullers said.

Knezevic’s “frequent flyers” are a group of boys who normally have problems behaving throughout the school day. Each day at recess, Knezevic takes a walk around the track outside with them and asks them about their day. Other students have noticed the group and latched on as well.

After one lap, one of the boys said, “Can we walk one more Principal K?”

Knezevic said the most difficult part of managing Holly Grove is the fact it is open the full year, unlike traditional schools that close for the summer.

“We call it “clopening” because we close it and then open it,” she said. “It keeps going, and if you stop, it will throw you off and it’s hard to get back on. It’s all the time going, and there is no time to reflect, so you have to be constantly looking forward and making decisions on the spot.”

She said her plan for improving Holly Grove is to have more interaction between teachers and parents.

“Even with us here, we get busy with teaching and meetings and grades, everything that we do all day, and I don’t think we do our part to reach out to the parents and say, ‘hey, so and so had a fantastic day today,” Knezevic said. “I think that the parents--you know, every time the phone rings and they see Wake County Public Schools, and they’re just, ‘ugh,’ you know, they get that feeling--so, we want to change that.”

Knezevic said one of the most important parts of being a principal is getting the right people on your team.

“When I do hire, I hire passionate people,” she said. “I look for passion and excitement over knowledge sometimes; knowledge you can learn. You can teach people the curriculum; you can’t teach people to love kids or be excited making sure that their kids grow.”

Knezevic’s job isn’t always focused on just education.

“We have had losses of a child, somebody’s child,” Knezevic said. “We’ve had losses of husbands. Parents and extended family is one thing--that’s the progression of life--but having to deal with an infant’s death or a husband’s untimely death, that was one of the hardest. But it brought us more together as a group, as a community.”

Issues with bullying also happen frequently, some more severe than others. Holly Grove is a PBIS school, or positive behavior intervention school, so action is taking early to educate students on bullying.

“We have assemblies we do with the kids, and I have two wonderful counselors that go into the classrooms with the kids and do lessons on what’s acceptable and what’s not, and in cases where it does still exist, we take it very seriously,” Knezevic said. “We call the parents and we tell them, and we have consequences for that because it’s not okay, it’s just not okay.”

Principal Knezevic said she wakes up every morning looking forward to seeing her babies the most.

“I tell my staff and my PTA that I have two kids of my own but I’ve been blessed with almost 1,200 kids here, and I take it very seriously that they get the best education possible, that they are equipped for whatever the future holds for them,” she said.

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