Note: This is the final story in a series profiling the principals of Athens ISD’s five main campuses.
By Toni Garrard Clay/AISD Communications Specialist
If you happen to be in the halls of Athens High School, chances are good you’re going to run into Jami Ivey. She is not a principal who hides out in her office. Instead, she interacts regularly with students, getting to know them and either encouraging or admonishing them accordingly.
“I make a point to have a relationship with the kids,” she said.
Ivey’s path to leadership started with very humble beginnings in Denver City, Texas. “Growing up, we lived in houses with holes in them, and I played in the holes. I thought that was normal,” she said.
Neither of Ivey’s parents graduated from high school. She was the first person from her family to have a college degree. “I use that history to connect with kids who need to be the ones to break out of a cycle (of poverty),” she said. “I tell them their education can’t be taken from them. Education is the answer.”
Ivey graduated from Baylor University in 1992 and went to work as a computer programmer for the city of Tyler and then for Brookshire Grocery Company. When Mabank ISD had trouble finding a computer programming teacher, a friend called Ivey up to see if you she was interested.
“It came at a good time in my life,” she said. “So I jumped at the opportunity.” She stayed in Mabank for six years and said she enjoyed teaching her students what she had so recently used herself.
She went on to teach computer programming at Athens High School and spent three years as testing coordinator at Athens Middle School. Along the way, she also earned a master’s degree in education. In 2008, she spearheaded the implementation of the Early College High School/Pinnacle program at Athens ISD. Then in 2012 she took over as principal at the high school.
Though she enjoyed her years in the classroom, she feels suited to the administrative role. “As a teacher, you get to affect 150 kids or so. In this position, I get to affect a thousand,” she said.
She describes herself as a student-first administrator. “School doesn’t exist to be easy on the adults,” she said. “It should be as stable as possible for the students first. For example, we team teach here so that kids are centered in their environments. We used to have students going everywhere on campus. When we changed that, there was an immediate improvement in achievement and discipline.”
The school’s academic achievement has been especially notable of late. Last year, Athens High School brought home the coveted UIL 3A Academic Sweepstakes Award. And just this month the campus was recognized for having been distinguished in two areas of the state’s performance standards: mathematics and post-secondary readiness.
More about Jami Ivey
- She has two sons at the high school: senior Chad Head (varsity QB) and sophomore True Head (JV QB).
- She can’t throw away a plastic bottle. “I drive people crazy about recycling.”
- She loves football, especially the Chicago Bears and the Baylor Bears. “That’s just a coincidence about both being bears.”
- Her husband, Robert, is the athletic directors at Canton ISD.