Berkeley Leader

If a school year lasts 180 days, then that means students are given 720 days total to make their time in high school count.

Tiffany Brown wants her students to keep that in mind while they are at Cane Bay High: “What do you do with your 720 days? How will you make a positive difference?”

Brown is ready for a new school year, and she aims to help the school build an identity that is reflective of Berkeley County School District’s vision to “create a future we dare to imagine and make a positive difference.” As part of that vision, Brown wants to challenge her students to get even more involved this school year and really embrace that sense of Cobra Pride.

Her first year as principal was a tough one, largely because of COVID, but it also empowered Brown in a sense.

“I feel like if I’ve gotten through that, I can do anything,” she said.

Brown studied biology/pre-med at Tennessee State University. She got her teaching certificate as a “plan B” and spent her first year in education in Dorchester District Four at Woodland High, which is her alma mater. During that time, she still had hopes of going into the medical field but fell in love with teaching.

She spent her second and third years teaching in Charleston County School District and then came to BCSD when Cane Bay High opened in 2008; she joined the school as a science teacher for five years and then became an assistant principal. She left the high school in 2020 to serve as BCSD’s director of Adult and Community Education for one year before returning to serve as the interim principal last school year. BCSD board members officially named Brown as principal of Cane Bay High back in March.

Brown said she learned a lot from the camaraderie of her school during the pandemic. She was reminded that it goes a long way for teachers and staff if they see their administrators doing the same things they are asking teachers to do – a big example of that was subbing in classrooms, as the school was very short on subs at the beginning of the school year. While the teachers stepped up to help cover each other’s classes, Brown did so as well.

“We were fine as long as we were sticking together,” she said.

However, Cane Bay High still managed to accomplish a lot of achievements last year in spite of COVID: Cane Bay High swept all of the region titles in its winter sports. The school hosted its first-ever Special Olympics event, and the wrestling team brought home its second State Championship win.

Seniors scored $9.3 million in academic scholarships.

“I was so proud of our students,” Brown said. “We tallied our awards throughout the year and that was the highest that we ever earned collectively.”

Brown has a few goals this upcoming school year: improved communication with families so they know the goings-on at Cane Bay High; more involvement with the School Improvement Council; more engagement with community partners to provide additional experiences for students – such as job shadowing opportunities.

Brown is really pushing to help her school create an identity for itself. Administrators have somewhat “toyed around” with the term “4 A’s, 3 E’s” as a way to help establish a sense of identity at the school.

The A’s stand for academics, activities, athletics and arts, and the idea is that if one were to ask a student which “A” they belong to, the student should be able to answer with whatever “A” they identify with.The E’s stand for enroll, enlist and employ – these are the three actions that Cane Bay High currently works to prepare its students for after graduation.

“I feel like we offer a wide range of clubs and activities for students to be involved in,” she said, adding COVID made that hard last year. “I want every kid to feel like they belong here, and to get involved. They will do the academic piece…but it’s those other three A’s that keep them coming back.”

Brown has high hopes for this school year to accomplish her list of goals, and she is supported by what she described as a very strong administrative team; her advice to any first-year principal: “Do not be afraid to reach out and ask for help.

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“I think sometimes when people sit in this seat they feel like they have to have all of the answers – none of us have all of the answers,” she said. “So don’t be afraid to reach out.”

Outside of Cane Bay High, Brown is very active in her church. Her daughter, Jordan (aka “a ball of fun”), has just turned 5 and is in kindergarten at Whitesville Elementary; Brown enjoys bringing her daughter over to Cane Bay High for school events.

Her favorite part of her school is its family-like atmosphere.

“We’re very supportive of each other,” she said.

Monica Kreber

kreberm@bcsdschools.net

Original source can be found here.