Alexandria Johnson, Margaretha Sander, Lauryn Johnson, Principal Bruce Jackson, Samsun Cole. Courtesy of DCPS
By Samsun Cole (4th Grade), Alexandria Johnson (5th Grade), Lauryn Johnson (4th Grade) and Margaretha Sander (4th Grade)
In September, students from Amidon-Bowen interviewed Principal Bruce Jackson for The Southwester. Below is a transcript of their interview with him.
What are three words that describe you?
Parent. I have a son that is just over a year old. So one of my favorite things to do is hang with him and he takes up my time in a good way.
Passionate. When I am interested in things I get really into them.
Competitive. I like to win as a team, whether it is rooting for DC Scores or basketball or cross country.
How did you decide to come to Amidon?
I worked for DCPS for quite a while. My wife got a job opportunity that brought us to Florida. The plan was always to come back. I used to be a principal in DC, so when I applied there were five schools that needed a principal, and Amidon stuck out to me for a couple of reasons. Everyone that I talked to mentioned how amazing the students and staff were and how close knit everyone was. I had to interview and meet with teachers and families and I got lucky enough to have the community want to have me too.
What were you like as a student?
When I was younger, I was very quiet, I was raised by a single mom. She was going to work and my job was to get good grades and go to school. I was an A student with good grades. If I got in trouble it would be bad. That was through sophomore year of high school. Through student government and athletics, I got more vocal and outgoing and gained confidence.
What events can we look forward to this year? What positive changes are you thinking of making to the Amidon community?
One of my commitments when I came to Amidon was that we are going to continue to do things we loved in the past. If there are things like Field Day, all of those things we are going to keep because they keep Amidon, Amidon. Second, we are going to gather interest from families, students and teachers to guide what we are doing. We have an active choir, DC Scores, basketball, cross country team, Girls on the Run, Techbridge and drumline. We want to plan more field trips. We want to get students into the amazing places that surround our school. There are so many things in our backyard and using those opportunities is great. I want more clubs and sports and keep adding to it. There’s DC Scores soccer, track, cheerleading, flag football, Girls on the Run, cross country. If students want a club, we want to be in a spot to do that as well. It really has to be a choice for students. We have had our experiences as adults so now it is your turn.
We are concerned about lockdown drills.
I don’t think anyone wants to do lockdown drills and I think kids feel it is scary because of what it is. The lockdown drill is the last resort we will get to. We have security guards, there is a fence around our playground. There is also an app on our phone where we can use to get folks here if we need it. We practice because these things might happen and we want everyone to know what to do in those cases.
Your teachers are incredible and will make sure you are safe and cared for the best they humanly can.
How are we going to deal with community problems?
There are a lot of different agencies in DC that can help us resolve issues that we have. There are folks in our school and community that are especially interested in helping our school and community as a
whole feel safe. We don’t always have to call the police to solve our problems. Giving one answer to every problem is not going to fix them. We should ask, “what does this situation need and how can we help?” I think it starts with treating everyone with respect and listening. Building a community where we listen to each other and the problem.
Out of the schools you’ve worked at, what makes Amidon different?
I started in elementary and did middle and high for a while and now back to elementary. We are in the middle of this amazing neighborhood. We had a school leader, Ms. Sykes who was here for a long time, and did so much great work to set Amidon up for success. We also have a gym, and athletic fields and that puts us in the position to have such cool sports for our school. We have a great group of families and students. We have a lot of families from the neighborhood but also many families. Pride in the school is something that is remarkable and I know families come from across town that have a connection with Amidon. We are the best in Southwest!