Principal's Message from Floyd Starnes
I began as principal here in July of 2007. Before Kemp Mill, I served as principal intern at Twinbrook Elementary, staff development teacher at Maryvale Elementary, assistant principal at Broad Acres Elementary, and Title I instructional specialist at the central office. I spent my 12 years as a teacher teaching Reading Recovery, ESOL, and first grade – mostly at New Hampshire Estates Elementary.
Growing up, I loved math, languages, singing and theatre. I spent my college years at Oberlin College in Ohio and at the University of Maryland, acting in plays and singing with choruses – sometimes in exciting places like Carnegie Hall in New York or in London with the Royal Philharmonic. After college, I lived in France for a while and went to school to learn French.
Kemp Mill is a great place for me to be in so many ways. The kids are happy to be at school and excited about learning – smiling at me and saying “Good Morning” as they arrive at school in the morning. The teachers are so dedicated and so talented – they know just how to motivate their students to do their best. Since I’ve always loved language, being a Dual Language School is perfect. It’s so fascinating to watch our children become comfortable speaking their new language and to see the pride they show when their home language is used in the classroom. With my love for math, and Kemp Mill’s emphasis on providing so much math acceleration, I get to see kids get turned on to higher level thinking in math all the time. And my background in and passion for reading instruction, makes me truly appreciate our fantastic reading program – with the supports in place to get all of our students reading, and with the enriching literature programs that stimulate deeper thinking and a true love for reading.
It’s really easy to be the principal of a school when everybody works so hard! The kindness of the front office staff welcomes all who enter our school. The hard work of our building service staff makes the place sparkle and shine. Our children are well fed by our cafeteria staff and well cared for by our health room folks. They are exposed to the wonders of art, music, and libraries, and PE allows them to run and play while they learn about fitness and health. Our dedicated paraeducators provide support and supervision to our students all day long, in the classroom, the lunchroom and on the playground. Their emotional selves get great care and attention from our counselor and our Linkages to Learning program. And our families get lots of support from our parent resource center.
It truly takes a village . . . and we’ve got one dedicated, hard working village here at Kemp Mill!