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Bronaugh welcomes new principal
Nevada Daily Mail
To James Frank public education sells opportunities.
Frank taught at Golden City and Fair Play and coached basketball, baseball and softball before moving to Nevada to become Bronaugh's new principal.
"The opportunities that I got being in a public education system were just enormous," Frank said. "We grew up without a lot of money, but my sister got to go to Mizzou on a scholarship and I got to go to Northwest Missouri State on a scholarship. To get the opportunities that we got to become the people that we wanted to be was just tremendous."
Formerly of Bolivar, Frank moved to the area with his wife, Alisha, and 8-month-old son, Timmy.
He said he has stayed in education because he loves it.
"I want to help people become better teachers, I want to help schools, especially small schools, become better schools. I love the opportunities not only for the kids but also for myself," he said.
He said he has the facilitating style of leadership.
"I like to think of myself as fairly laid back," he said. "I'm a big believer in letting people have independence to get things done, but also in giving them lots of direction."
Frank said his goals for the upcoming year are standard.
"You want to have a good year as far as administration is concerned, avoid major discipline, and you don't want to get sued," he said and laughed.
He said he hopes to keep improving test scores and overall instruction.
"Basically, the challenge for me as a principal is to try to keep the positives of a small school society while increasing the benefits that larger school's generally provide," he said. "We want to improve the opportunities that we can give to kids, but at the same time we want to improve our image as far as the state is concerned."
Frank said keeping up with technology is another concern.
"Technology has really changed the entire world, and schools struggle to keep up. We always think of education as being important and relevant, but we want to stay relevant," he said. "If kids feel like the stuff we're giving them isn't important anymore, we're going to be fighting a losing battle."
He said providing a public service can also be challenging.
"Education might be one of the few services that is provided to people whether they want it or not," he said and laughed. "Some people love you and some people hate you. In the world of administration, a big part of the challenge is trying to do the best for people that sometimes don't want your help."
Despite the challenges, Frank said he is excited to be at Bronaugh.
"I'm serious about my job and what I want to get done here," he added.