New Principal To Lead Moultrie Middle

When Moultrie Middle School students return to class next month, a new face will greet them.

Anna Dassing, a long-time teacher and administrator, has taken the helm as the school’s new principal. She replaces Jean Siewicki, who retired at the end of last school year.

Moultrie Middle, in a new building with above-average state test scores, is the school a lot of parents seek. This year, the Coleman Boulevard school has a waiting list for out-of-district students who want to attend classes there.

Dassing admits she’s walking into a pretty sweet deal: she’s always wanted to be a middle school principal, she’s inheriting a talented staff, the kids mostly are learning and achieving, and she has a great facility.

But that doesn’t mean she’s going to kick back and let the school run itself.

"We’ve got to raise the rigor," Dassing said. "Math and science are critical. We live in a global economy that is eating us alive in many respects, so we’ve got to prepare our kids."

Teachers at Moultrie already do a good job looking for ways to increase student performance, so Dassing says she’ll seek to encourage more of those opportunities.

Like a lot of schools, there’s a big gap between students who are traditionally high performers – kids from middle-to-high income households – and minority students who come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds.

About 21 percent of students at Moultrie receive free or reduced-price lunch, a common benchmark to determine poverty.

That so-called “achievement gap” is a problem across the county, and Dassing will seek to shore it up, she said.

She has a decent record of doing just that. Prior to Moultrie, she was an assistant principal at R.B. Stall High School in North Charleston, a school for years challenged by lagging student performance.

Before that, she was a math and science teacher specialist, floating all over the northern part of the county, working with teachers to develop effective classroom techniques.

Working at Stall High and at Alice Birney Middle School (now Northwoods Middle School) were rewarding challenges, she said.

"The schools needed a lot of help. They just have a lot of challenges," Dassing said. "But I fell in love with those schools and their teaching staffs."

In all, she has 20 years experience in education, also working at schools in the Rock Hill area and at the Charleston Military Magnet School.

So far, her reception at Moultrie has been positive. She held two meet-and-greet sessions with parents and students over the summer, and she hopes to continue that throughout the school year.

"Raising teens is difficult," said Dassing, who has a middle-school-age son. "We’re going to have some parent workshops to help with that."

Classes on social networking, parenting techniques and dealing with adolescence changes are all potential topics.

But the primary focus, she said, is helping boost achievement among kids who are lagging. Secondly, she thinks there are kids who could perform better but stay just under the radar with average or slightly below-par grades.

"Those are the frustrating kids," she said. "They are the ones who are intelligent and smart, but they just don’t have the work ethic."

Parents should feel confident in Dassing’s leadership, because she knows how to prepare kids for high school, she said.

"I am going to work very hard to continue the tradition of excellence here," Dassing said. "I’ve been in high school, I know what it takes to be successful there."

ABOUT DASSING
Personal: Married for 20 years, a son in middle school
Resides: Park West area of Mount Pleasant
Experience:  13 years classroom experience, 20 years in education