Gadsden County Schools Superintendent Reginald James - and his wife, Betty - will be the first guests featured on a new Florida Education Channel series.
Florida Department of Education teacher liaison Nicole Flesvig made arrangements to interview the couple after hearing about the progress the school district has made in recent years and the children's book Mrs. James, a long-time teacher, is writing.
The show, "Teacher Talk", is scheduled to tape Thursday or Friday. The date on which it will air had not been set earlier this week.
"It speaks volumes to the progress we've made," James said Saturday. "I think that's a tremendous honor, to have been chosen for the show. The credit goes to all the community - the teachers, the administrators and the students."
James said he plans to highlight some of the district's noteable achievements in recent years.
"We'll talk about academic progress, the number of students working at grade level. We'll share with them the fact that we've been able to move our schools away from failing," James said. "We'll share some of the faith-based initiatives - we have 56-plus churches working with us - that began here in Gadsden County. We'll talk about school uniforms and how we were able to get them for elementary and middle school students through a process that made the parents the driving force behind it. The key to the success of our efforts is we shared the information we had with our community and let them decide. We recently launched a large character education initiative - I think it gives us a chance for early intervention. I'm so thankful we now have the resources (through a grant) to do it."
The district's newly-implemented correctional training program for seniors will also be discussed during the interview, James said.
"With that training, they can come out of high school and earn $30,000 and up. We've been blessed to do some unique things in this district," he said.
A lifelong Gadsden County resident, James has worked in education 30 years, over 25 of those within the county.
"I've had the opportunity to not only work here for 25 years, but at both universities," he noted. "I worked at Florida State University as administrator to a special research project and at Florida A&M University as associate dean for general studies."
Betty James, also a Gadsden County native, is a reading coach at Gretna Elementary School. She spent the bulk of her 29-year-career in education as a first-grade teacher, first at Stewart Street Elementary and then at Gretna Elementary.
She started writing as a pleasant pasttime around five years ago, but soon found a way to combine her hobby with her experience, crafting a children's book about renowned artist Dean Mitchell.
Mitchell, also a Gadsden County native, agreed with her vision for the book, which she has tentatively titled, "Dean Mitchell, the Artist: An Ordinary Man with an Extraordinary Gift".
"I became a serious writer about a year ago when I started thinking about some of the wonderful Gadsden County people who worked hard and were determined and persevered and were successful," she said. "I want children to know that it's possible to succeed with determination and perseverance. I wanted to not only put some good reading materials in the hands of the children but to show them there are ways to a better life."
The book is geared toward fourth- to fifth-graders. Mrs. James said she chose that demographic because at that age, students sometimes lose interest in reading.
"I wanted to kind of spark an interest and a love for reading," she said. "And I wanted to get them to understand they need a purpose for life." Mrs. James first heard Mitchell speak about 10 years ago.
"He sparked my interest when he stood up before a group of people to receive an award and he started talking about his life and his work and his family," she said. "The obstacles he had to overcome were formidable."
After getting Mitchell's blessings, Mrs. James worked nightly on a manuscript about his life. She finished the manuscript in October.
"I know the book, when it gets out there, is going to impact lives on a large scale," she said. "I wanted it to be one that would last forever, that 50 years from now, you put it into the hands of a child and that child will be uplifted."
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