Elmore returns to Plain View, takes reins as principal

Plain View Elementary School is welcoming Beth Elmore back into its ranks, but this time as principal instead of a physical education teacher.

The Sampson County Board of Education announced its approval of her promotion from assistant principal of Midway Middle School to principal of Plain View Elementary School at a personnel meeting earlier this month.

Elmore, who has been working at Midway Middle School for the last five years, said she’s excited for the opportunity, but also humbled by the belief placed in her.

“I’m super excited, but most of all I’m humbled to be chosen as principal of Plain View Elementary School. You know that someone believes in me. I’m humbled by the belief that I can lead a school,” she said during a telephone interview Thursday morning.

By Thursday night, Elmore had said goodbye to her position as assistant principal and instead looked toward her new position as principal for the elementary school. But even so, she said that it had been a day full of goodbyes as the friends she made at Midway Middle School stopped by to tell her goodbye. She said it was bittersweet to leave something that she loves, but she was looking forward to going to Plain View.

“I’m walking out the door to opportunity,” she said that afternoon. “The staff at Midway Middle are great, but I’m looking forward to going to Plain View and helping create a new family.”

Elmore was quick to stress that her time at Midway Middle School was important, and that years she spent as an assistant principal was key to helping her become the principal that she hopes to be.

“I have been an assistant principal for six years. The first year I was split between Hobbton Elementary and Midway Elementary, so I got to work with two really good principals who showed me two different styles of leadership, but it kind of got my feet wet a little bit in what an assistant principal does,” she said. “But when I came to Midway Middle School as the AP for Kevin Hunter, it just rocked my world because he has showed me so much about humility, how to care, love and support a staff, but he’s also given me an opportunity to get into all the little intricate parts of being an administrator.”

She said working with Hunter showed her what it meant to be an administrator in more than just the day-to-day things that was expected of her as an assistant principal.

“When people come in here to, you know, talk about a good or a bad, it gives me the opportunity to do that, and so other than just doing the buses and the discipline and the testing, he’s really given me an opportunity to step outside of the box and learn what it means to be an administrator,” she explained.

But she said working with Hunter also gave her an idea of what she wanted to be as a principal. She learned that “humility is everything” from him, but to also “see people for who they are.” And these are a couple of lessons she said she is confident she will be able to follow after working with him for five years.

It is a sentiment that was shared by Hunter, who attested that Elmore will do a great job leading Plain View Elementary.

“It has been a pleasure to work alongside Mrs. Elmore as an administrator at Midway Middle,” Hunter said. “Mrs. Elmore is always fair and consistent in her leadership. She will do a great job of leading Plain View Elementary as their new principal.”

Leading is one thing Elmore strives for, but not the only thing.

“I want to be a principal that is supportive, that is inspiring and encouraging. And the reason why is because people need people,” she said. “I know that one of my gifts are people because I love people. We’re all different shapes and sizes, but we’re still all people at the end of the day. We love, we hurt, we have needs. And so, as a principal, I hope to be the type of leader that’s going to help meet all of those.”

For a while, being at the helm of a school was not even on Elmore’s radar. She said when she first went to Kentwood University for her undergraduate degree she was majoring in religion. But it was her dad who told her that “pastors don’t make any money, and women don’t do well in ministry.”

She admitted that he was right, but it was only after another woman in her church told her “she should be a teacher because she loves people” that she changed her major.

She worked at multiple schools and colleges before starting at Clinton City Schools as a health and physical education teacher at Butler Avenue. While working there, she was asked by Lenora Locklear and then superintendent Dr. Basham if she had ever considered being an administrator.

And when she started at Plain View Elementary School in 2011, she was told by then principal Gaynor Hammond to go back to school for administration.

“When I came to Plain View Elementary School Gaynor Hammond hired me. And that’s when she said, ‘Beth, you need to go to school. You love people. You know that’s what administrators do. We support each other, and we love each other regardless.’”

And now, Elmore has not only become a principal, but she is going back to Plain View Elementary. And while she’s nervous, she said she’s excited to come home.

“I’m really nervous about elementary school. I’ve been with middle school for so long, but I’m really excited about going home,” she admitted quietly over the phone. “There have been a lot of changes there. Not a lot of (the same) teachers are still there, but there’s a few. But going back to Plain View, where I know it supports a community with love, then that’s what’s exciting because I get to go and do what I have in my heart to do for others. And being at Plain View where they already do it, that’s a dream come true.”

And while Elmore has reached her goal of becoming principal, she admitted that it means that it’s now time to get to work even more.

“I’m most excited to finally reach the goal that I’ve been working for. And the people that believe that I can do it. So now it’s time to get to work,” she exclaimed.

According to a press release sent out by Valerie Newton, the director of communications and family engagement for Sampson County Schools, Elmore has a master’s degree in administration from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, a master’s of divinity from Campbell University Divinity School and a bachelor’s degree in exercise science from Campbell University.

The press release said Elmore has over 25 years of experience in education, with her starting her teaching career as a middle school math and science teacher for at risk students with Johnston County Schools in 1999.