Director of secondary schools Mia Edwards to retire after 34 years in education – The Advocate

After a 34-year career in education, Ascension Public Schools Director of Secondary Schools Mia Edwards is retiring on June 30.

"There is so much I could say about the talents, competencies, and professional accomplishments of Mia Edwards," said Superintendent David Alexander."She has led countless successful initiatives at each juncture of her career. I admire her genuine passion and courage to embrace the mission, calling, and purpose of our work in education.

"She successfully supported ongoing effective practices, created change where it was needed, and could stay the course even in difficult times while leading others to stay the course, as well," he said. "She is a great example of leadership in so many ways. But most of all, she is just a good person that genuinely cares about others. She will be missed but also warmly remembered for all that she has done to make Ascension Public Schools a great place for kids and a great place to work."

Born and raised as Mia Griffin in Donaldsonville, the Griffin family has a long history of service and leadership in the Donaldsonville community. Her grandfather was a former mayor and state representative and her father served as a police juror. She graduated from Ascension Catholic School, where she attended from first to 12th grades and was inducted into the school's Hall of Distinction.

Although a good student who graduated with a 3.9 GPA, Edwards never considered herself as college material. In fact, she attended Nicholls State University with the intention of obtaining an associate degree so she could become a secretary. Once on the Thibodaux campus, an adviser recommended she major in business education so she would have more options after college. That decision changed her career trajectory.

After obtaining an undergraduate teaching degree, Edwards taught for one year at Donaldsonville High School before taking a nine-month teaching position at Baton Rouge Community College. She married her high school sweetheart, Sammy Edwards and they moved to their hometown, Donaldsonville

This coincided with her return to Ascension Parish to run the Job Training Partnership Act program at Lowery Middle School, which focused on remediating kids struggling in math and reading and providing them business and job placement skills. It was during her time teaching in Donaldsonville that she found her calling for education.

"It is the clich that it is all about the kids," said Edwards. "I inherited the DECA sponsorship at Donaldsonville High School and having the kids place in a competition filled me with so much pride and ownership. I sponsored Junior BETA and cheerleading at Lowery and learned that I just had a knack for working with and developing kids."

Under the leadership of then Lowery Middle Principal Jessie Sanders, Edwards worked on a master's degree in curriculum and instruction from Nicholls and recertification for math and science.

In 1993, Edwards and her husband built a house in St. Amant and she transferred to Galvez Middle School to teach sixth grade math and science.

She took a leave from her teaching position in 1998 to become the coordinator of the Louisiana Systemic Initiative Program grant, a partnership between LSU, Ascension and Iberville parishes, to further science education. After two years, she returned to Galvez Middle School and in 2002, Edwards became one of the first teacher coaches in Ascension Parish. In that capacity, she supported Dutchtown Middle and Prairieville Middle schools.

"Serving as a teacher coach was interesting and similar to my experience on the LaSIP grant. It stretched me because I had to support teachers in all content areas, not just math or science. However, I learned that good teaching is good teaching, no matter the content," said Edwards.

Edwards' diverse experience teaching in various public schools prompted her to make the difficult decision of moving her two sons, Sammy in fourth grade and Griffin in kindergarten, from the catholic school system to public schools.

"I always taught in public schools and knew we were providing a good education for students. Becoming more involved in the teacher coach concept allowed me to see teachers working to do what is best for kids, providing good academic feedback so students could grow. It wasn't just something that I believed in, it was what I thought was best for my own children," said Edwards.

She transferred to teach eighth grade at Lake Elementary for a year while her children made the transition to public school, then she returned to a teacher coach position supporting St. Amant Middle.

In 2007, Edwards became the staff development coordinator for teacher coaches and was in charge of implementing benchmark exams. Later that year, she was hired as an assistant principal at St. Amant High School.

"I felt high school would be exciting because of the long-term career impacts it could have on a student's life. I wanted to be a part of that," said Edwards. However, having spent most of her career in middle schools, she admits there was a learning curve.

"High school is beyond classroom curriculum. There are specific credits to graduate, TOPS curriculum alignment, block schedules, and the vast number of kids and teachers. One of the most difficult transitions was working with kids and parents on discipline issues," said Edwards. "Education at school is important to parents, but the way their children are treated at school is even more important."

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She became principal of St. Amant High School in 2011.

"My decisions have to be what is best for kids because that is why we are here. I always ask myself 'Is this best for kids?.' If the answer is yes, then I feel confident and justified in my decisions," she said.

Edwards believes the community placed their trust in her not only because of her consistent focus on students but also because her own children attended the high school. Her oldest son, Sammy, was in tenth grade when she became assistant principal, and her youngest, Griffin, graduated in 2017. "My kids were in the same classes in the school. It added to my drive because I expect the best for all."

The 2016 flood devastated St. Amant, and Edwards was impacted both personally and professionally. She led the largest affected school while dealing with her own flooded home.

"The flood was by far the hardest event I have dealt with because the impact it had on so many people. It was just unbelievable that it happened to this community," said Edwards. "We had to reassure everyone that we were going to be OK, and we worked tirelessly to make that true."

St. Amant High's 2,000 students and staff spent six months on Dutchtown High School's campus holding classes from 12:30 p.m. until 5:10 p.m. This meant extracurricular activities like athletics had to take place in the mornings. Edwards and her staff had to put in extra effort to secure logistics for normal activities like homecoming and holding pep rallies in the rival team's gymnasium.

"We could have said we were not going to do activities outside of the classroom because we were flooded, but we were not going to do that this year. This adversity stirred a competitive drive in everyone who instead said this is not going to beat us," she said.

Although the Dutchtown High teachers and staff were welcoming and accommodating, St. Amant High teachers had to bring their materials to school each day and were basically teaching out of backpacks. Because of the half-day shared schedule, both schools lost 45 minutes of instruction time each day.

According to Edwards, the half-day schedule was also a blessing for the flood-ravaged community because it allowed time in the mornings for families to work on repairing their homes and for students to be with their parents. The flood also taught students that good can come from bad things.

Less than one year after the flood, Edwards was named a semifinalist for Louisiana Principal of the Year and stepped into a new leadership role: director of secondary schools. In this new position, she oversaw the district's four high schools, APPLe Digital Academy, the Early College Option program and career and technical education.

Looking back at the past five years, Edwards is especially proud of the following accomplishments:

There were three people who had profound impacts on Edwards: Patrice Pujol, Steve Westbrook and David Alexander. Each guided her during pivotal moments in her career.

Pujol inspired Edwards to become a teacher coach. "Through her leadership and guidance, she showed me how I can influence the work of others. Her passion and drive were admirable, and I didn't feel like I could rest because she couldn't rest," said Edwards.

When Westbrook was principal of St. Amant High School, he hired Edwards to be an assistant principal.

"He took a chance on me," said Edwards. "He ran a very effective school that allowed students and teachers to grow and keep academic focus. He was the first to open my eyes to how administrators balance so many plates and how to best utilize your people to achieve your goals."

When Edwards was principal of St. Amant High School, Alexander was director of secondary schools.

"As my director, he was my personal support system. His experience running Dutchtown High and sharing the good and struggles made me feel good about what I was doing," said Edwards.

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Director of secondary schools Mia Edwards to retire after 34 years in education - The Advocate