Note: This is the third in a series profiling the principals of Athens ISD’s five main campuses. … Tuesday: Rosalie Dennis/BAE … Wednesday: Kelye Garcie/SAE
By Toni Garrard Clay/AISD Communications Specialist
If ever a person was connected to a building, it’s Ginger Morrison. The principal at Athens Intermediate School has spent her entire 20 years as an educator at the campus. Back when the building was Athens Junior High, she was a student … and her parents both taught there, in rooms 4 and 5.
After graduating high school, Morrison went directly to cosmetology school, where she earned her license and then never spent a day using it.
“I knew that wasn’t for me,” she said. “I went back to school and got my license to teach.”
Morrison spent about 13 years as a classroom teacher, then she was the testing and instructional coordinator, a master teacher, the assistant principal (under now Assistant Superintendent Janie Sims) and is beginning her fourth year as principal at the intermediate school, which has grades 4 and 5.
“I love this campus,” said Morrison. “It’s all I’ve ever known.”
Morrison was born and raised in Athens and freely admits she was “a rebellious kid.”
“I was always pushing the limits,” she said. “That’s why I have a heart for the kiddos so much. Kids don’t always make good decisions, but that doesn’t make them bad kids.”
Morrison’s heart for the children is apparent at end-of-the-year assemblies, when she inevitably tears up while bidding farewell to the outgoing fifth graders.
“I like this job because I’m still highly involved with the student aspects, but I also get to lead adults,” she said. “That’s the best of both worlds. I love being where the kids are, and I like curriculum and instruction.”
Morrison describes her management style as that of “servant leadership.”
“If I’m going to ask someone to do something, I have to be willing to do it as well,” she said. “I want to walk alongside staff until it’s time to step out front and lead.”
More about Ginger Morrison
- She walks at least two and a half miles every day on a path mowed around a pasture. “It’s my stress reliever.”
- She and her husband, Mo, live in a relocated three-story house built in the early 1900s that was originally a hotel in Murchison.
- She is a cancer survivor, six years and counting.
- She is a shoe person, big time. “I buy the shoes and then find an outfit to go with them.”