Clarke Central High School Assistant Principal Dr. Linda Boza sits in her office on Sept. 27. Since 2002, Boza served as the CCHS Instructional Coach and is still transitioning into her new position. “Right now we don’t have an instructional coach, so I’m doing both. So I’ve added on (the) discipline of seniors, and then about a quarter of the staff for evaluations, but I’m still coaching new teachers and helping them and supporting them, and supporting teams, which is another coaching thing,” Boza said. Photo by Ana Aldridge
Dr. Linda Boza was announced as a new Clarke Central High School assistant principal on Sept. 4 at a Parent Teacher Student Organization meeting.
At the opening Parent Teacher Student Organization meeting for the 2018-19 school year on Sept. 4, Clarke Central High School Principal Dr. Swade Huff announced CCHS Instructional Coach Dr. Linda Boza as the new assistant principal.
Boza is the fifth addition to the CCHS Administrative Team, joining Huff, Associate Principal Amanda Gorham and Assistant Principals Dr. Sheila Dunham and Reginald Thomas.
“I’ve been waiting for an assistant principal opening here for a long, long time and we haven’t had one. I never wanted to jump right into an associate position. I think a lot of people were shocked (when it was announced). (They) didn’t realize I even had applied, because for so long I wasn’t ready,” Boza said.
Part of the reason for Boza’s hiring as assistant principal was to help combat the extra workload for the Administrative Team that comes with the school’s recent increase in population.
“When I started here 16 years ago, our population was 1,300. Now, we’re almost at 1,800 and we’ve never added another administrator. So, Dr. Huff came in and looked at the numbers and said, ‘Why don’t we have another administrator?’” Boza said.
Boza will be the administrator for seniors, and hopes to help alleviate the workload on the Administrative Team.
“(Adding an administrator) really helps, because you have to divide everything,” Boza said. “Teacher evaluations are time-consuming, we added several teachers over the last two years, so those numbers are up, student numbers are up, and it just takes a village, and now I’m part of the village.”
Family Engagement Specialist Christian Barner, who has worked with Boza for seven years, is enthusiastic about her new position in the building.
“Having that extra administrative help is gonna be great, especially having someone like Dr. Boza who already knows students, already knows Clarke Central, and so I think it’ll be a good, seamless transition for her to move into that administrative role, where she was already kinda doing a lot of those duties anyway,” Barner said. “I think she has the respect of the faculty and staff already.”
Clarke Central High School senior Jon Smith is glad that Boza will be his designated administrator.
“I do know Dr. Boza. I think this is is really cool (and) I’m very happy for her,” Smith said. “I think she’ll do a good job.”
Boza previously worked as an instructional coach at CCHS for 16 years, and since her announcement as assistant principal, the offering for her old position has been posted to the Clarke County School District website and closed, meaning someone has likely been selected for it.
Boza does not know who will be replacing her as instructional coach, but has high hopes for the person who does.
“When I stepped into this position, it was my dream job, because I had just gotten a doctorate in curriculum and instruction and I just wanted to share that with everybody. It was like this contagiousness where I wanted to just tell everybody these ideas that I had,” Boza said. “I think (the new instructional coach will) have to have a real passion for just education in general, because being a coach is so broad. You just really can’t be in a niche, and if you don’t have that passion, I don’t know how you can do this job.”
Boza plans to provide assistance to the new instructional coach.
“I would love to be able to mentor (the new coach) and get that person to be really strong, so that maybe we can even work as a team and keep morale high, keep our teachers very supported so that they wanna stay here forever because Clarke Central’s an awesome school. That’s why I’m still here,” Boza said.
