“Keeping the Main Thing, the Main Thing”
Where Students Come First
At Bertie County Public Schools, one principle drives everything: “Keeping the main thing, the main thing.” With that focus, the district is strengthening academics, expanding career pathways, and building community partnerships, all to make sure students are ready for life after graduation.
Summing up the district’s mission, Superintendent Dr. Otis Smallwood says, “We want to make sure all of our kids have access and opportunities to reach their full potential, to be ready when they leave our schools, and to be able to compete in this global and complex society. We’re going to try to do that by giving them engaging, student-centered opportunities so that they can graduate and become productive citizens.”
Supporting the Whole Child
Along with an emphasis on academic success, the district has built a network of counseling, mental health, and wellness supports designed to meet students where they are. “All of our kids have school counselors and social workers at their disposal,” Dr. Smallwood says. “We partner with many mental health organizations in the community and the region to provide wrap-around services for our kids.”
Those partnerships include the Community Schools Coalition, Integrated Family Services, Second Step, and Eustress Inc., which provides a mental health coach for student athletes. The district has also expanded telehealth services, allowing students, families, and staff convenient access to care. “We try to fill in the gaps as a school district by partnering with these other external organizations,” he relays. “These relationships are so important to help meet the needs of the whole child in our school district.”
Investing in Teachers
Supporting educators is another key priority, and Bertie County Public Schools places a strong emphasis on mentoring and professional support, especially for new teachers. “We have a beginning teacher liaison, whose job is to help new teachers become their best selves,” says Dr. Michael White, assistant superintendent, and a Bertie County commissioner. He notes that many new hires enter the classroom through alternative pathways and are completing licencing requirements while teaching full-time. “Support in the schools is important,” he emphasizes. “That’s how we’re going to keep them here, by supporting them in and out of the classroom.”
Workforce housing is one way that the district and the county are working to meet the needs of educators in Bertie. Championed by former county commissioner Ron Wesson, the Dream Point Apartments project was born out of the need for affordable housing and became a collaborative effort involving the school district, Bertie County, the Town of Windsor, and multiple funding partners. The town provided land, while organizations such as the Golden LEAF Foundation and the State Employees’ Credit Union Foundation helped to fund the project.
The result is affordable apartments designed with teachers and other essential workers in mind. “It’s two bedroom, two-bath for $800 a month,” Dr. White says. “The town of Windsor and the county understood that this is an investment. Because if we can get apartments built, if we can get people living here, that’s going to be more tax revenue. So, investing in a school system, while it looks different, there are multiple returns.”
Technology and Real World Experiences
In the classroom, Bertie County Public Schools continues to expand its use of technology to support instruction and engagement. The district is fully one-to-one, with high school students able to take devices home. “We actually use those devices as we embed more technology into our lesson plans,” says Wanda Cofield, CTE Director. “We are making sure that our students are learning, not just through textbooks, but doing different things to exemplify what they are learning.”
While offerings such as robotics are still developing, the district is focused on offering more hands-on learning experiences across subjects. “We’re making sure that in not just CTE, but in all of our classes, they’re able to actually experience the more advanced pieces with the technology and what it offers,” Cofield conveys.
Aligned with its student-centered philosophy, career and technical education at Bertie County Public Schools is designed to reflect both student interests and the evolving needs of the regional workforce. “Health science is one of the biggest pieces,” Cofield expands. “We offer CNA to our students, and as they go out to tour different places, they see in every workplace that health science is still an important piece of the workforce, and it takes you in so many aspects of having employment.” This pathway gives students opportunities for real-world experience through partnerships with ECU Health Bertie and local nursing homes, where they gain skills while working directly with patients.
Early childhood education is another growing area, with students expanding their learning in local elementary schools and childcare centers. “They can go in and do hands-on work with the children and put to work what they’ve learned in the classroom and in the textbook,” she adds. “Those pathways are really big in this area. It helps the students to understand if this is something they really want to do, and how it really feels to work with the real people.”
Welding has proven to be another viable opportunity, leading to immediate employment for some. “Students can get the certification and move forward with apprenticeships and actually get hired on the spot with our local businesses in the surrounding area or out of state,” Cofield recounts. “We’ve had students go to the shipyard and actually work there at the Naval base with the certifications that they have. We would love for them to stay here, but we’re preparing them with options and choices, so they can work and be career-ready wherever they go.”
Expanding and Improving CTE
To support the expansion of these programs, Bertie County Public Schools secured a $15 million state grant to construct a 30,000-square-foot career and technical education addition at the high school. “This was a grant process that was competitive,” Dr. Smallwood explains. “We got all the necessary paperwork and pre-planning to come up with the $16 million amount, and fortunately, we were afforded the opportunity to receive that grant to add that CTE wing to our current high school.”
This addition allows for all CTE programs to be housed under one roof, with state-of-the-art technology, eliminating the need to transport students and providing an up-to-date learning environment. “Around Bertie, we always talk about keeping the main thing, the main thing,” he imparts. “If we want our kids to be successful and have every opportunity available for them, we have to start at home. We’re in a poor rural community, but that’s why we have to leverage our resources and look for other resources to give the kids the very best opportunities while we have them, so they can compete when they leave us.”
Postsecondary Partnerships
When it comes to preparing students for postsecondary education, the North Carolina Career and College Promise offers a significant opportunity. “It allows our students to earn a tuition-free college credit, and it also helps them to gain early career skills and certifications,” Cofield outlines. “It accelerates their path towards a degree. It saves them time and money. So, it is a great relationship and a great opportunity for our students.”
Additionally, the district’s partnership with Martin Community College plays an important role. “It has been so easy to work with them,” highlights Dr. White. “They don’t ever say no. It’s ‘How do we get to yes?’ I love that about them.”
For anyone hoping to enter the workforce right after graduation, these pathways also provide those options. Cofield shares, “Our businesses are hungry for employees, so it’s just a smart and ambitious way that we can have our trained students already certified, ready to work, and then these businesses are ready to snatch them up and take them to the next level.”
Looking Ahead
As Bertie County Public Schools looks toward the future, the focus is on balancing accountability, student support, and responsible growth. That includes completing major building projects, maintaining teacher housing, expanding internships, and strengthening public-private partnerships.
“We’ll be pushing to make sure kids are taught well and have good outcomes on their assessments,” concludes Dr. Smallwood. “But at the same time, we’re trying to make sure that kids get the emotional and social support that they need. If we can assist with financial support, we try to make sure they get that too. If the community is healthy, then so is the school. So those are the things to keep striving for and pushing for.”
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AT A GLANCE
Who: Bertie County Public Schools
What: A rural K-12 school district, with a whole student approach to success
Where: Windsor, North Carolina
Website: www.bertie.k12.nc.us
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