The new NC Principal of the Year says relationships are key to school success

Patrick Greene, principal of Greene Central High School, received the honor of the 2022 Wells Fargo North Carolina Principal of the Year on Friday afternoon in a ceremony at the Umstead Hotel in Cary.

Greene’s leadership style is focused strong relationships with everyone in his school and in the community. That builds trust and support, he said, and helps the school have what it can’t afford on its own through community partnerships.

That’s how the Pitt County native thinks he go to where he is today.

Greene’s grandfather was a four-time 7th grade dropout. But a principal who attended his church encouraged him to go back to school and helped him eventually graduate. Greene’s grandfather’s daughter, Greene’s mom, later graduated at the top of her high school class. She then raised her children to love school.

“None of that would have been possible had it not been for the leadership of two generations ago from a principal who I don’t even know his name,” Greene said Friday. “Our leadership not only changes the outcomes for the students we serve but it also changes the directions of lives.”

Greene was chosen Friday among nine nominees from the state’s eight education regions and among charter schools.

The other nominees were:

The Principal of the Year serves as an adviser to the State Board of Education for two years and spends one year traveling the state as an ambassador for the principal profession.

Greene will also receive $3,000 as an award for himself and $3,000 in extra funding for his school.

As an ambassador for the principal profession, Greene told WRAL News after the ceremony he wants to travel the state, talk to school leaders and share their success stories for everyone to learn from.

“This has been difficult job but people whose passion has shown through have tremendous ideas and are doing some really great work that can be multiplied if other people know about it and had an opportunity to learn from it,” Greene said. In particular, he wants to highlight work that is energizing employees and students in a difficult, pandemic-depressed environment. He wants to make kids like school again and people be interested in working in education again.

Schools are facing their biggest challenges now, because of student disengagement, lagging student performance, staff shortages and the high needs of everyone at the school, Greene said.

Workforce may be the biggest challenge, as leaders continue to look for “the next thing” to get people excited about working in education.

“It's probably going to be a problem for years to come,” Greene said, until the state figures out how to fix its sagging employee pipeline.

Educators need to feel like they made a difference and feel fulfilled, Greene said. They also need support once they arrive at a school to continue to grow over the years, especially their first few years, he said.

“Relationships are everything and I think any principal will tell you that,” Greene said. Educators need to know their colleagues care about them and support them.

Staff morale in Greene’s school “has improved significantly” since he took over, Greene County Schools Superintendent Patrick Miller said in a news release from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction.

Relationships in the community, Greene said, can lead to partnerships with community groups, alleviating some of the challenges faced in a rural, lower-income community.

Greene recently started a program called Juntos at Greene Central High, which works with Spanish-speaking families to help them navigate the school, the schoolwork and college planning.

Greene has focused on education for undocumented students for years and centered his doctoral dissertation last year at East Carolina University on that population. Former undocumented students he’s helped educate have entered numerous careers in the community since, such as medicine, politics and business, he said in DPI’s news release.

Greene has been the school’s principal for nine years, raising the school’s performance grade from a low C to a high C, thanks to recent years of student growth that exceeded projections.

The school faces more disadvantages than many others across the state, with students who test lower than average upon entering the school, and with nearly two-thirds of students considered “economically disadvantaged.”

As a comprehensive high school that also specializes in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, most of the more than 700 students are enrolled in career and technical education and earn industry credentials while in school.

Greene began his education career as a social studies teacher in Pitt County in 2004. He became an assistant principal just four years later, also in Pitt County.

He eventually made his way over to the county that shares his last name and was principal at Greene County Early College High for one year before taking over at Greene County Central High.