Before the summer started, staff members at Spring Hill Elementary School in McLean, Virginia, approached Principal Amy Briggs with an idea.
They wanted to paint a mural on part of the wall to illustrate the Portrait of a Graduate, a Virginia mantra that characterizes the skills students need to thrive after graduation. She was intrigued, but asked them to explain what exactly that would look like.
One staff member took her at her word, volunteering her own time over the summer and painting a mural on a school wall. It inspired other educators to do the same, and now, there are four murals where “staff members came in, dedicated their time to making this space look better and something to be proud of, and more colorful.”
Teachers noticed them when they returned from summer break, Briggs said, explaining the positivity they created was contagious.
It’s the impact she has hoped to have as principal of the school she once attended. She wants kids, and colleagues, to have the same experience she did.
“I wanted to be here every day,” Briggs said. “I was excited to come here every day. And I want that for everyone who walks through these doors. I want them to feel that same feeling. It’s just a really special place.”
Briggs attended Spring Hill from kindergarten through sixth grade, and her two kids were students there, too. She became a substitute teacher for one of her former teachers, then became a student teacher, fifth grade teacher and technology specialist.
For five years, she was an assistant principal. Now, she’s in her third year as principal.
“I loved my teachers,” Briggs said. “I absolutely love them. I love them so much I wanted to be one of them, because I felt that I wanted to do the same thing for others that they did for me.”
As a student, Briggs was one of about 600 kids. Now, the campus has over 1,000 students, and is represented by 48 different languages and 52 countries.
Despite its growth, “it’s a small feel. And everyone knows each other, and everyone works together. And I think that’s why it’s so special,” Briggs said.
There have been several renovations since Briggs attended Spring Hill, but the flooring in the PE hallway has been the same since the ’70s. When she walks through, she reflects on how she was treated as a student and how to create that same feeling for current kids.
“The job is not easy,” Briggs said. “It is tiring. It is exhausting. But then anytime I start to feel, ‘Wow, it’s getting a little bit challenging,’ I go into a kindergarten room, or I’ll go into a classroom and they’ll ground me right back to where, ‘This is why we’re doing the work we’re doing.”
To keep everyone excited throughout the long school year, Briggs started planning pep rallies. Teachers have a walk-up song and get introduced, and they dance to the music. The students enjoy it, and it gives the educators a break, too.
“It’s a privilege and honor to be in this position and there’s a lot of joy in it, so we have to stay in that, because there’s a lot of it,” Briggs said.
Briggs and the school staff felt similar positivity when students returned for open house and parents attended back-to-school night. It’s exactly as she remembers it.
“I’m just thrilled that now we have a whole lot of staff members who are so invested in the school, that they’re giving back in this way, and it’s just spreading and it’s showing, and it’s been wonderful,” Briggs said.
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