Skyview Elementary Principal this week’s Davis and Elkins Excellence in Education

BRIDGEPORT, W.Va (WDTV) - “We are a family here at this school; we all work really well together, we love each other, we care about each other, and it is. We call ourselves the rocket family because our mascot’s the rockets and it truly is a family every single day. So, you love to be around your family so coming to work is just a great place to be.”

This is Jennifer Cox’s 12th year at Skyview Elementary and her 28th year working in Monongalia County Schools in total. According to Niche. com, Mon County schools was recently named the best school district in the state and Cox has been a diligent, caring, and important part of that success. As the first half of the school year comes to a end; Cox and the Rocket family will take lessons learned so far this school year and use it continue to climb the ladder of success.

“We’ve had a big reading challenge for the past two years because we are encouraging our students to no just learn to read, but enjoy reading and grow lifelong readers. So, we do all sorts of reading challenges every month and that will continue into next year. And just set our goals higher and higher for our reading expectations.”

While the journey to success isn’t necessarily easy, it does get less difficult when you have the family type of environment that’s unique to only the rockets.

" There’s a sub shortage nationwide and so on some day’s we’re all just working to make it a successful place for our students, so that our students don’t skip a beat. So, that means if someone gives a planning period, or someone covers for someone, or we’re at lunch duty one time more than we should be. We just do it so that our students don’t notice a difference because that’s why we’re here. We have a job because of students and that’s what we just have to keep at the forefront of our thinking.”

Nothing about the future is set in stone however, the track record of Cox and Mon County Schools leaves room plenty of room for optimism and room to grow.

" I just adore working for Monongalia County Schools because they afford the opportunity for all of our students, all of our teachers, and for me to grow every single day. And so that’s what we do here at Skyview and why I love coming to work every day is our goal is to grow good humans. So, we really work on relationships, we work on kindness, and we work on growing our learning so that we can just make the world a better place.”