Building Administrators Making a Difference in Public Education in Georgia - Bruce Potts
“A good leader inspires people to have confidence in the leader; a great leader inspires people to have confidence in themselves.” - Eleanor Roosevelt Bruce Potts is the Principal of Sonoraville High School, but began his teaching career as a para-pro in Gordon Central high school's In-School Suspension program. Working as a para is a long way from school administration, but starting at that level allowed Bruce to learn about teaching and kids from the bottom up, and provided an experience and appreciation of the ground level, front line work teachers and paras do with students that other administrators may not have. His Principal was impressed with his success with those challenging students and assigned him to work with a group of at-risk 9th graders in a Physical Science class. This group’s behavior had led to the resignation of the teacher early in the school year and the subsequent refusal of 3 long term substitutes to return to that class. Bruce had no classroo...