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Principal draws strength from spouse
By ANGELA SHUFF CAMP HILL, Pa. – Being an elementary principal requires a tough personality and the ability to juggle many responsibilities. Jemry Small credits her strength and sense of balance to her husband. Small greeted her visitor with a stern handshake and motioned her to sit across from the desk. Beside the visitor, a little boy sat with his head down on a desk facing the wall. He had a rebellious fear in his eye, the look children often have when they’ve done something bad, even though the person may not have been sent to the principal’s office. The funniest things come out of kid’s mouths when caught by the principal. Small remembers one such boy whose explanation for his wrong had to do with the fact that the left side of his brain suddenly took over the right side. “Sometimes it’s really hard not to laugh,” Small said. Everything in Small’s office is in order, and she sits up straight behind her desk. She has a committee for everything, and a strict safety plan in case of an emergency. Her teachers are held accountable to explicit high expectations, and the students know they will obey rules in school. Even before her principal days, she was known as a master teacher. “Her discipline was amazing. She was very strict about what kind of behavior she expected, yet she never raised her voice,” said Ruth Hoffman, third grade Highland teacher. Small grew up in a large, hardworking family in rural Michigan. Her father demonstrated the value of hard work and her mother took care of the family and provided a structured home life. Her childhood memories are stories of happy family life and self reliance. Small was the eldest of six and the natural born leader of the pack. When she was a child, she and her brother Barry sold flowers by the roadside to earn enough money for her mother to fill the car with gas so that they could all go to the lake for the day. While in high school, Small would get up early in the morning before school and make sandwiches by the hundreds for a vending machine company. She was the first in her family to graduate from college. A partial college scholarship helped her get through, and she paid the rest of the balance herself. After volunteering at an elementary school during her undergraduate studies in pharmacy, Small decided to pursue a career in education. She has now been working 20 years in the West Shore School District and has been the principal at Highland for a year and a half. “When she came to Highland as my principal, I really looked forward to working with her. Teachers at her previous school spoke very highly of her,” said Hoffman. “Balance is the key,” said Small. At this point in her life, she faces more responsibility than ever. Besides being a principal, she is involved in numerous committees, and is pursuing her doctorate degree. “Regardless of the situation, Mrs. Small always has a smile on her face,” said Mrs. Jody Wickenheiser, fifth grade Highland teacher. She has enough to keep her locked her in office for 11-to-12 hour days. But she can be seen walking the hallways and visiting the classrooms on a regular basis. An occasional lunch with the students and daily greetings when they arrive and leave keeps her in touch. Teachers at Highland are part of a team. “I feel comfortable going to Mrs. Small for anything. Her door is always open,” said Wickenheiser, who sees Small as an inspiration for her to work on her master’s degree. Hoffman says the amount of Maalox she has gone through is a good measure of the quality principal that Small is. “I am still on the same bottle, and in past years I’ve gone through one bottle a week,” she said. Teachers not only call Small their administrator, but they also call her their friend. Small feels strongly about rewarding those who go the extra mile, therefore she loves the idea of incentive pay for teachers, if it is based on an objective system. She reminds her teachers, “It’s good to be here, and it’s good to do our best.” All teachers and students are treated with respect, and are therefore inspired by her. “I actually find myself working harder just to live up to her favorable comments about me,” said Hoffman. “It’s easy for teachers to get frustrated,” Small said, “but I like to remind them that life is good.” When she gets overwhelmed, she turns to a familiar page in her planner - a handwritten poem from her “dreamboat,” her husband David Mention David’s name and Small’s lips turn up in a dreamy smile. Small and David were introduced at a dinner party and have now been married eight years. “There is such as a thing as love at first sight,” she said. She said they bring balance to each other in their home. David is the vice president of the Pennsylvania Medical Society, but Small said at heart he is a freelance novelist and artist. Small brings structure and organization to his life, and David brings passion, freedom, and a global outlook to her life, she said. “She has the most loving disposition of anyone I have ever known in my life,” said David. “She’s easy going and has a great sense of humor – at least she thinks my jokes are funny.” Laughter is an important part of their relationship and Small adds her share of it to the home. One night she got up from studying for a test for her doctorate program, and announced that she was going up and down the stairs five times in order to freshen her mind. “Each time she went up and down she came over and kissed me on the forehead,’ said David. “That’s one,” she said, and so on, until she completed her five cycles up and down the stairs.” If their house were to catch fire, Small said she wouldn’t save anything, not even her favorite mystery novels, first edition books, fine art, or mementos from their many travels. She would only take time to make sure her husband got out safely. A battle David had with pneumonia last year gave her a scare, and her greatest fear is losing the love of her life. Small wants to be remembered as one who touched lives with a smile. And she does just that. Even the boy in the corner saw her smile amidst her disapproval of his behavior. She is stern but loving, a balance that is touching lives. All stories in this magazine are the intellectual property of the individual
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