Part Two; Dr. Perry of BCHS looks forward to the year

In the first part of this pair of stories Dr. Michael Perry spoke with Allegheny Mountain Radio about his background, and a little of his educational philosophy. Dr. Perry and his wife, Rosita recently moved to Bath County where he is the principal of the high school, and she is the director of food services. I asked him if there were anything in particular he would like students, teachers and their families to know before the first day of school.

“Basically I’m a person who, I’m not a judgmental person. I believe in second chances; now, I believe you should learn from your mistakes, and if you keep making the same mistakes over and over and over, then we’ve got a problem.   But you know I think part of life, and part of learning is making mistakes, and we shouldn’t be afraid to make mistakes. I believe above all, you know people have all different kinds of abilities, but I think everybody can be respectful, and that is something I pretty much demand, and I hope command, because I am going to treat everyone with respect. I would hope to be respected in return, and it’s something I expect our students to be respectful, and I expect our teachers to be respectful, and I’m hoping our community and parents will be respectful. I’m the kind of person, you can say just about anything you want to say to me; you don’t have to agree with me because I’ve gotten a lot of good ideas from people, in fact probably most of my good ideas have come from other people. But I am just a little sensitive about how you say things to me, and I think everybody is that way if they’d be honest about it you know.  So I’m happy that anybody’d disagree with me, and share a concern. I will receive that gladly, and may take action, however that might work out, but that respect thing is something that, when we have that in pace, everything just goes a lot smoother.”

Data shows, teaching is more effective and learning is more successful in smooth and respectful environments. So, thank you Dr. Perry for promoting those qualities. For all back to school information visit the Bath County Public Schools website, or call your child’s school directly. Sports Calendar, activities schedules, vacation dates and more are available there. For closings and cancellations in our whole listening area, please stay tuned to Allegheny Mountain Radio.

(Musical outtro)