After spending the last six years teaching in the Petal School District, Luke Daniels should feel right at home during his next step to becoming a school administrator through the Ole Miss Principal Corps Cohort 10 internship program.
Daniels, who returned to Petal in early July after spending a month taking cohort classes in Oxford, will spend at least the next semester interning at Petal High School, where he is working alongside principal Rob Knight for on-the-job training.
“So far, I’ve helped in making sure that the school is progressing toward being ready for the start of the school year,” said Daniels, who most recently was a math teacher at Petal Upper Elementary School. “I helped plan one of the first days of professional development for the faculty, and just in general, trying to sit in on the meetings with the administrative staff and learn from them how the school functions.
“So I’m trying to immerse myself in their world as much as I can.”
Over the last month in Oxford, Daniels has worked with 14 other school officials around the state in the Ole Miss Principal Cohort, particpating in team-building exercises and leadership classes.
“We were in there from about 8 a.m. everyday until about 3:30 each afternoon,” Daniels said. “Then we had assignments that we worked on each night, as part of the course that requires us to work collaboratively toward those objectives.
“So it was a very fast-paced month – it was a six-hour class that we took in four weeks, so it was a lot to get done in a short period of time. But it was very, very rewarding, and a learning-filled month.”
Because a handful of other Petal school officials have gone through the program in the last few years, Daniels mostly knew what to look for going in, even if the experience turned out to be a little more intense than he expected.
“(It’s) just the amount of time, and how much we produced in a short amount of time,” he said. “But at the same time, I think that it was not something where anybody left feeling like it had been a waste of time.
“Everybody found it rewarding and grew from that first month of experience.”
After next semester is over, Daniels – who last year was named the 2017 Teacher of the Year by the Mississippi Department of Education – will either stay at the high school or finish out the school year at another school in the district, depending on the district’s needs. At the end of the cohort program, he will be awarded with a specialist’s degree in educational leadership and be eligible to take an administrative position.
“(Luke) has a wealth of knowledge, and I think he’s eager to learn and eager to grow in his leadership,” said Matt Dillon, superintendent of the Petal School District. “He’s well-read, and I know he’s going to be a good fit.”
Although Daniels grew up in the Jackson area, his first choice would be to stay with the Petal School District after he receives his specialist’s degree.
“I feel like Petal is my home,” Daniels said in a previous story. “It’s where my wife and I have been teaching in the school district, and it’s where we want to raise our family.
“I feel like being a school leader in Petal, I would have the opportunity to play a vital role in helping continue, and even expand on, the excellence that the school district has become known for.”
