By Olivia Nevels

On September 23rd, Principal Karen Berg sat down with me, and the first thing I noticed in her office was the amount of dog photos, statues, and posters, the kinds of things dog lovers keep around. One dog was a brown and white Jack Russell terrier named Ruffian. The other was a black and white rescue from Aruba named BonBida. Principal Berg smiled when talking about them, along with her students. It’s this love for others that shined in the interview. 

Principal Berg’s passion for students has kept her going every day as a teacher, an assistant principal, and now a principal. 

The following has been edited for clarity:

ON: I see you have lots of dogs! I love them! They’re so cute! Do you have a favorite dog? 

KB: Probably the little white one. Her name is Ruffian.

ON: So where did you grow up?

KB: I grew up in New Hampshire. In a very small town called Peterborough.

ON: What relationship did you have with your principal when you were in high school?

KB: Actually, I really don’t recall having a relationship with my principal when I was in high school. I went to a very small private school. So it wasn’t the same type of setup, which is probably part of the reason why I try to have relationships with as many students as I possibly can.

ON: Did anyone at your private school inspire you to become a principal?

KB: I actually never wanted to be a principal. I wanted to be a teacher. I taught world geography, world history, Virginia U.S History, U.S. Foreign Policy, AP U.S. History, AP Government, and AP Human Geography. And when I was a teacher at Lake Taylor High School for 17 years, Norfolk State University offered the opportunity for people to get a masters degree in urban education. So I went ahead and did that and with that degree, you would be licensed to be a principal. When I started taking the courses and doing all the work, I realized that I thought that was something I really might be interested in doing. So I changed my path of career choice and became a department chairmen. Then I was a dean of students, and I was an assistant principal, and then I became principal.

ON: What did you enjoy about being a history teacher?

KB: Telling stories. Because history’s a story. I had the opportunity at Lake Taylor where because I taught so many things, there were about 9 students that I taught 9th grade, 10th grade, 11th grade, and 12th grade. I had some of those students for four years in a row. So we had great relationships.

ON: What made you switch to Maury?

KB: So when I was an assistant principal my first year at Lake Taylor High School,  the second year Tommy Smeagle, who is the principal at Granby high school, was also an assistant principal [at Granby], and they decided that he had too many constituents at Granby. So they moved us. When you’re an assistant principal, they tell you where you’re going to work. We don’t have choice. So I was told the last day of school at Lake Taylor that I was moving the next year to Maury High School. That’s how I ended up here.

ON: What’s the difference between being an AP back then and now being a principal?

KB: I think just the challenges with the world we live in today. I think, and you can attest to this, student behavior is a little bit more extreme than it used to be. Unfortunately, the assistant principals spend a lot of time dealing with disruptive students versus being in classrooms and being able to observe teachers and increase their capacity for delivering good instruction.

ON: What is a typical day like for you as a principal?

KB: So I usually get here between 5:30 and quarter to six. When I walk in the building, I run into the head custodian and we’ll have a brief conversation about what’s going on in the building. I pull up the daily subs so I know which teachers are here and which ones aren’t. I start looking at emails. I’m old school. I have a paper calendar, so I look at my calendar and I try to map out what I need to do for the day. For example, today what I’m working on right now is the school improvement plan because I have a deadline for next Monday for the school improvement plan to be done.

ON: What is the school improvement plan?

KB: We look at the report from the state of Virginia on how all the students did with their  SOLs. So you want to be all in green. So we have some yellow. The yellow are gaps. So how do we close those gaps? We have to come up with strategies for how we make sure we don’t leave any child behind.

ON: What’s your favorite part of the day?

KB: After school activities: going to see the band, the football team, or the volleyball team. I do like the cafeteria when I have the ability to get down there because I like to see you guys interacting with each other. And actually I love going in classrooms. It’s just I don’t have the time that I need to do that.

ON: If you had the time, how often would you be interacting with the students and the teachers?

KB: That’s all I would do. If I had the time, I would be in classrooms all day long every day.

ON: What’s your why?

KB: To change lives. To give kids opportunities that they didn’t know they had and to encourage people to realize that at your age we’re not all going to win the lotto or be a professional athlete. You have to get through high school. This is your best chance, and these four years will determine what the rest of your life looks like. 

ON: Where do you see yourself in five years?

KB: Retired. 

ON: What do you envision for Maury in five years?

KB: There will be a brand new building. In five years, the new building will be built. I work on that process. Once a week I’m in meetings for eight hours talking about the building. I think it’s going to be very exciting for the new generations coming through the school. 

ON: What’s some advice you would give to me or a student in general?

KB: Do just like you’re doing. Get involved. You have to tell your story. You have to sell your story, and the more boxes you can check for involvement, the more marketable you are as a student going into college. So just like this. You going outside your box, taking a risk, coming into my office, talking to me, being articulate. You’re doing a wonderful job. Get involved in as many things as you can.

ON: What’s some advice you would give to someone who wants to be a principal?

KB: So we have people right now who are working on their degree, and we let them shadow with an assistant principal. They are part of the instructional leadership team. Be well read. Read the news trends. Figure out how we’re going to make students not have their cell phones in January. Yeah, that’s going to be a big one, isn’t it? But just listen. You have to sell yourself. So you have to be visible and volunteer for things, and just sell yourself.

ON: What do you think is the hardest part about being a principal?

KB: I think the hardest part is worrying about everybody’s safety and knowing that I’m responsible for making decisions for 2,000 people because if there’s 1,700 of you and then we add all the adults in here…

ON: That’s a heavy load.

KB: That’s a heavy load. It’s what keeps me up at night.