Principal for a Day: Turner Middle welcomes Luz Borrero

This may have been the first time for Luz Borrero (above) — deputy COO, City of Atlanta — as Turner Middle School’s Principal for a Day, but she had plenty of experienced visitors along with her during her visit to the school on Tuesday. That’s because she was welcomed not only by Principal Karen Riggins-Taylor but also members of the Turner Alumni Association. Now, we’re not necessarily talking about Turner Middle graduates, but graduates from when Turner was a high school back in the day.

So there was Turner Alumni Association President Dorothy Thomas-Swann and several other alumni joining in on the walk through the hallways and in the classrooms to see the progress being made at Turner. They came away impressed, as Principal Riggins-Taylor pointed out how Turner is on its way to making Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) for the second consecutive year after failing the previous six years.

Borrero was impressed from the beginning: “When I first came in, I saw kids lined up for breakfast, which they finished in their classroom. It looked to me like a healthy breakfast. Apparently, the program’s successful because they (students) take more ownership of their surrounding area when it’s their own space instead of in the cafeteria. It’s one of those new and different approaches that I found interesting here.”

Riggins-Taylor also showed her entourage how Turner employs APS’ differentiated instructional approach, which included adding a Program for Exceptional Children instructor (Elizabeth Johnson) to an English/language-arts class to help the two teachers — Morgan Crawford and Andrea Nunn — with the PEC students who study within the rest of the class.

“Our data shows we’re getting there,” said Riggins-Taylor. “We need to address the needs of our students, and hold our teachers accountable while giving them what they need to be successful.”