All was quiet at Sale Elementary International Studies Magnet School Wednesday afternoon. Principal Nancy Bragg walked past empty classrooms, past the newly mopped cafeteria, and down a hallway as silent as a lazy summer’s day.
She didn’t know why she was summoned to the gymnasium. She certainly didn’t know the school’s 325 pupils were seated Indian-style on the gym floor, hands clasped to their mouths or shoved beneath their crossed legs in an effort to remain quiet and still.
Maybe the pent-up excitement made the children clap extra hard and cheer extra loud, when Bragg entered the gym. But the roar became deafening, when she was named the Columbus Municipal School District’s Administrator of the Year, for the second time. And when she was named a First Congressional Finalist for State Administrator of the Year, she had to wait several minutes for the applause to die down so she could speak.
Bragg became an educator because she believed it was her calling. Now, 31 years later, she knows it was not only her calling but her mission. She said she still is as enchanted as the first time she walked into a classroom, partly because she enjoys making a difference, but mostly because she loves each and every child who crosses Sale’s threshold.
Second-grader Carolena Graham, 8, said she knew the principal cared about her when she came to school sad one morning. Bragg immediately noticed and took time to lift her spirits.
Graham twirled a silver necklace around her index finger, shyly watching Bragg from across the room. A grin spread across her face.
“I want to be a principal, too, because I want to be just like her,” she said.
Bragg was chosen as the city school district’s administrator of the year because of her “dynamic, innovative, assertive, almost aggressive” style, CMSD Board President Tommy Prude said.
Two years ago, the Mississippi Department of Education placed Sale on academic watch. Now the school is the only one in the city district to rank as high-performing, one tier away from the top — being named a star school.
Prude attributed the school’s success to the example Bragg sets.
“She’s a leader to the first degree,” he said. “She sets the tone and the direction.”
Bragg has high expectations for herself, her students and her staff, CMSD Interim Superintendent Dr. Martha Liddell said, noting improved state test scores are the payoff.
But Bragg says the magic formula for success is something closer to the heart.
“It’s all about knowing the children, their backgrounds, where they come from, their parents,” she said. “Children learn to trust you when they know you care about them. You can’t fool children.”
Fifth-grader Tijah McCrary, 11, couldn’t resist adding his input.
“She challenges us and gives us treats for being good,” McCrary said. “I love her.”
Bragg has 17 years of school administrative experience, beginning in 1996 as principal of Hunt Intermediate School. She became principal of Sale in 2002. She has an education specialist degree in curriculum and instruction from Mississippi State University and is a graduate of Millsaps Principals’ Institute.
Carmen K. Sisson is the former news editor at The Dispatch.
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