WEST POIINT — South Side Elementary School Principal Lucy McKellar has long believed students excel when their educators are well-equipped. It’s her driving force in her school.
Still, McKellar has never crossed an ocean in that pursuit. But in November, she will get that chance as part of the Fulbright Leaders for Global Schools program.
“I think my students here at South Side … are just as good as any other kids in the U.S., and I want to have everything at my disposal to make sure they can be the best that they can be,” McKellar told The Dispatch on Tuesday.
The program announced in July that McKellar is one of 40 administrators who will spend 13 days abroad this year, learning about the United Kingdom’s education system and bringing those lessons back to their schools.
The Fulbright Program is a government-sponsored educational and cultural exchange program, which is funded annually by a congressional appropriation to the State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. The leaders program McKellar will be participating in falls under its umbrella.
The goal of her trip, McKellar said, is to find new practices that can be adapted for the students in West Point.
“I’ll be researching (the U.K.) education system and kind of collaborating with their administrators to hopefully find instructional strategies and new approaches to bring back to my school and increase achievement,” she said.
But schools in the U.K. won’t be McKellar’s only focus on the trip. She’s excited to work with administrators from different states and bring back those practices too, she said.
“I also get to collaborate with other administrators, because there’s 20 of us that are going together,” she said. “Since we’re going to be traveling together, not only do I get to see the U.K. and their educational system, but we get to collaborate on what we do at our home schools.”
McKellar is a West Point native who taught in Columbus for 10 years before moving back to her hometown. While she’s no stranger to international travel, she said it will be the first time she’s looked into another country’s education system.
“It can kind of open my eyes to see what other countries are doing and bring that back not only to my school but the district,” she said. “I’m just hoping to get new ideas and new strategies that are not the norm here that I can bring back to help my students.”
Richard Bryant, now principal at West Point Learning Center, was principal for Fifth Street Middle School for the three years McKellar spent there as assistant principal. He said her drive to help students is one of the main reasons she deserves to participate in the program.
“She’s always on the go, always working, always doing something for the kids or with the kids,” Bryant said. “I think she’s deserving really because there’s nobody that works harder for the kids than she does.”
McRae is a general assignment and education reporter for The Dispatch.
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