A familiar face returns
Former Besser principal Eric Cardwell visits as principals group chief
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ALPENA -- Hinks Elementary School had a familiar face visiting on Monday. Eric Cardwell, former Besser Elementary School principal and current National Association of Elementary School Principals president, visited Hinks on the last stop of a 2018 road trip tour for the principals organization
Cardwell's tour covered seven states: Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana, Tennessee, Illinois, Kentucky, and Georgia, spanning a total of 4,800 miles.
"It just provided an opportunity really to visit schools from a district that had 265 kids K-12 to Memphis having the largest district with 165,000 students," he said. "It afforded me the opportunity to see and really look at the struggles that the various schools had, but also look at some of the successes that they were experiencing. This event has been absolutely life-changing for me."
The road trip was an opportunity for schools, teachers, principals, and superintendents to tell their stories. Cardwell updated a blog throughout his road trip that talked about the schools.
Hinks and Alpena were Cardwell's last stops because he wanted to showcase an Alpena school. His wife picked Hinks out of a hat that had the names of all the Alpena schools in it, he said.
"Alpena, like the other schools, has some really great things going on, but are also experiencing challenges," Cardwell said. "It was also important for me to give the nod to Alpena because they've supported me through the whole process leading up to this year."
The road trip was made possible through grant funding from Meemic Insurance Co. and the National Association of Elementary School Principals. Meemic helped Cardwell pay for travel and hotel.
"I was gone from Sept. 13 to Friday, and I stayed in a hotel five nights," Cardwell said. "The rest of the nights, the principals were opening up their homes to me, which really extended the conversation."
Cardwell started his tenure as president of the principals organization on Aug. 1 and, though his first couple of months as president have been busy, he said he's enjoying the experiences he's getting.
"It has been an absolutely amazing experience from the standpoint of being able to travel to the various states, meet principals, and most recently with the 4,800-mile road trip," he said.
Though he's enjoying life as president of the association, Cardwell said he misses the everyday rush of being a principal and being in a school. He also misses seeing the students every day, but he sees his new role as an opportunity to advocate for what students, teachers, and principals need.
A common thing Cardwell saw across the schools he visited is that communities are struggling economically, but the schools are still doing remarkable things to help parents and students, Cardwell said.
Cardwell is in Alpena only until today because he's heading to Washington, D.C., to be one of three panelists in a congressional briefing on education. At that briefing, Cardwell said he will share his experiences as a principal in Alpena and his experiences on the road visiting the schools
.Julie Goldberg can be reached at jgoldberg@thealpenanews.com or 989-358-5688.