SALEMBURG — It wasn’t too long ago when Olivia Hall was recognized as one of the top teachers from Sampson County Schools. Now, she’s looking forward to a new challenge at two schools in the Lakewood District.
Hall is currently the assistant principal at Salemburg Elementary School (SES) and Roseboro Elementary School (RES). The unique position of helping to lead two buildings comes with different groups of people and leadership styles.
“It’s awesome at the same time because you get to learn so much from two different ways of doing things,” Hall said. “You can help bridge information between the schools. It gives me the chance to learn as much as I can to develop my own leadership style.”
Prior to her current work with the elementary schools, the Sampson County native and Lakewood High School graduated from East Carolina University as a North Carolina Teaching Fellow and earned a bachelor’s degree in middle grades education. She later became a language arts and social studies educator at Midway Middle School and Roseboro-Salemburg Middle School. Her work in the classroom led to her earning the 2015-16 Sampson County Teacher of the Year. She later received the Sandhills Region Teacher of the Year honor for 2016-17.
“It came to a point where I wanted to make a bigger impact,” Hall said.
She recently earned a master’s in education for curriculum, instruction and supervision from the University of North Carolina-Wilmington. Next, she returned to receive an administrative license.
“While I was in school, I ended up loving the supervision and the administration classes the most,” Hall said about earning a license.
Before the transition from teacher to assistant principal, Hall completed an internship with RES Principal Tonya Colwell. She was excited about the opportunity, which led to her current role working with both Colwell and SES Principal Gerald Johnson.
As an assistant principal, she enjoys having an overhead view of education by visiting different classrooms and seeing what she calls “the big picture.”
“I like that because you can see how you can really make positive changes,” Hall said. “So I enjoy seeing that bigger picture and it’s harder to see when you’re in the classroom.”
She also enjoys the chance to learn from so many people, especially when it comes to ideas of improving education and different perspectives while fulfilling her duties. During her time at RES, she performs other duties to help Colwell and other teachers.
At SES, Hall oversees state and federal testing procedures and other district benchmarks. She also works with the school’s literacy team and other educators to help build a culture of reading at the school.
“That’s been a lot of fun,” Hall said.