BHS welcomes the return of Kenneth Wooten
By Cathy Krafve

Principal Kenneth Wooten

The hallways of Brownsboro High School are lined with pictures of graduating classes, including the 8x10's of each Valedictorian and Salutatorian. Like the young people in those pictures, Kenneth Wooten has a history at BHS. Sitting in his new chair behind the principal's desk, Wooten is glad to be home.

"It felt like home then, and it feels like home today," says Wooten, referring to the first time he walked through the halls at BHS in 1994 when he came to Brownsboro to interview for a coaching position. Coaching at BHS brought with it the added benefit of meeting his wife, Julie Hallmark Wooten who is originally from Athens, since she was working as a teacher at the time.

One nice thing about returning after a five year stint as Assistant Principal at Van High School is the fact that the children of many of their fellow Brownsboro and Chandler teachers are reaching the high school now.

The Wootens are bringing with them the newest member of their family to experience the BISD, their son, 9-yearold Ryan who will be in fourth grade at Brownsboro Intermediate this fall.

Kenneth Wooten credits his own fourth grade teacher for changing his life when it came to his own academics. Labeled as an underachiever by previous teachers, those negative comments seemed to have sealed his fate, almost predetermining his future and affecting his perceptions and the perceptions of his parents who trusted the teachers' perspective. When his family moved to Nacogdoches, Wooten, filled with anxiety and dread, faced the first day at a new school.

Martha Woods, his fourth grade teacher, set the tone for what would become a signifi- cant, influential relationship in Wooten's life with her first greeting. "You must be Kenneth Wooten. I have been waiting for you!" she said as she greeted him with a big hug.

Looking back, Wooten realizes that Mrs. Woods had a way of making all her students feel special, but as a little boy, he felt he was the most special person in the world.

"I can't tell you what she taught me," he says with a chuckle, "but she made me feel like I could do anything." He adds that he went from being near the bottom of the class to the top. Her encouragement totally changed his expectations of himself. "What we do (as educators), affects lives."

With some meetings scheduled as early as mid-July, Wooten says he can hardly wait to begin discussions with teachers and staff. He believes the campus will move forward by establishing a foundation in three important areas; core values, campus goals, and, lastly, by establishing a common way of expressing those values and goals.

To define core values, it is necessary to understand the community and to recognize the values that are shared. For a teacher, Wooten says, it is necessary to answer the questions, "Why are you here? Why do you teach?"

Wooten says his personal reference points are simple, "Love God. Love Others. Everything else falls into perspective around that."

Wooten views education as serious business. If a student has an issue in any area of his life, whether it is at school or elsewhere, he doesn't leave that issue, challenge, or problem at the door of the high school. The student brings it with him to school. "It is our duty to help," says Wooten. Not only can educators offer encouragement and comfort, but educating students can also provide options for the future so that the student does not have to "feel backed into a corner or isolated," according to Wooten.

Sometimes it can seem like a difficult battle. "The reason we are here is to make a positive impact on our kids and our community; to make the world a better place."

The halls at BHS are lined with pictures of young people who have already had successes in the community and beyond. Besides the immense trophy case, boasting of innumerable sports, music, and academic triumphs, there are the faces of young people celebrating successes in livestock shows, band competitions, stage productions, power lifting competitions, basketball tournaments, and headline writing competitions. The bulletin board is papered with newspaper clippings featuring smiling BHS students.

"When you walk through the halls, it should be obvious that we celebrate learning, one child at a time" says Wooten, who adds that it is thrilling "when the light bulb comes on," for the teacher and especially for the student.

One thing Wooten says he learned in Van was that leadership is based on core values; values like integrity, character, professionalism, and a sense of being connected with each other. He says it is important for people to realize that on a campus, one individual's actions can affect everyone else. Each decision needs to refer back to those core values, always keeping in mind the central issue which is "what is best for the kids."

He also learned as an administrator that change can feel uncomfortable, but "sometimes, it is better to embrace that uncomfortable feeling and do what is difficult. Positive change requires some uncomfortable-ness."

He adds that state mandates can make it tempting to focus on red tape, rather than the students.

He has eighteen years experience in leadership roles and making it a habit to study and observe other people's leadership styles, he says, adding that his own leadership style is "based on core values."

It was a change in core values that brought him into education in the first place. He entered college expecting to be a business man, an entrepreneur. He wanted to provide a good standard of living for the family he hoped to have someday. Many of his friendships were with teachers who had inspired him along the way and they all told him the same thing, no one goes into education for the money. "Basically, I was running from education because I thought money was the key to life. Along the way everything that could feel wrong about that (idea), did."

Once he got over the hurdle of accepting a lifestyle where money was not the focus, his next thought was to go into the ministry. "That thought scared me to death," he says with a grin.

Finally, his path became clear, in what was to become, as he describes it, a calling. "Basically, I realized I wanted to be an educator. I wanted to give back what some of the dearest and best coaches and teachers had given me. Besides, I just love working with young people. That's the bottom line."

Walking through the halls of BHS is a reminder that there is a lot of community and history expressed in those corridors. Wooten is poised to lead into the future.