
{"id":3404,"date":"2008-09-11T07:39:21","date_gmt":"2008-09-11T15:39:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=3404"},"modified":"2008-09-15T05:47:17","modified_gmt":"2008-09-15T13:47:17","slug":"batten-takes-the-reigns-at-carrboro-high-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2008\/09\/11\/batten-takes-the-reigns-at-carrboro-high-school\/","title":{"rendered":"Batten takes the reins at Carrboro High School"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href='http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/09\/chsprinc-3v2.jpg'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/09\/chsprinc-3v2-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"Photo by Mary Lide Parker. Principal Kelly Batten says he is growing more comfortable with the Carrboro High community.\" title=\"chsprinc-3v2\" width=\"240\" height=\"160\" align=\"left\" size-medium wp-image-3405\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/09\/chsprinc-3v2-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/09\/chsprinc-3v2.jpg 1350w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 240px) 100vw, 240px\" \/><\/a><strong>By Susan Dickson<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Staff Writer<\/em><\/p>\n<p>When new Principal Kelly Batten started the school year at Carrboro High School, he said he felt a little like what a freshman or a new teacher might feel like at a new school. <\/p>\n<p>After six years at his last school, Batten said it felt a little strange not having strong relationships with teachers, parents and students. But after only a few weeks at Carrboro High, Batten said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s reached its comfortable spot now.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I have found that this community and this student body is very open,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said.<br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\nHaving grown up in a small town outside of Wilson, Batten said he was excited to work in a smaller community, at a smaller high school. The last high school Batten worked at had about 2,400 students \u00e2\u20ac\u201d Carrboro High has less than a third that many. <\/p>\n<p>Batten isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t new to the Chapel Hill-Carrboro community, having completed his bachelor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s degree in secondary education at UNC as a North Carolina Teaching Fellow. He then got his start in teaching at Sanderson High School in Raleigh, where he taught world history, civics and economics. Batten spent four years at Sanderson before returning to UNC to get his master\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s degrees in secondary education and school administration. He then served as assistant principal at Leesville Road High School in Wake County Schools, where he stayed for six years. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d reached the point where I knew it was time to move into a principalship or a central office position,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said, adding that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d always been interested in Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools because of the district\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s reputation and its small size. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s one of the best districts in the nation,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. <\/p>\n<p>When the principal position at Carrboro High became open, Batten said he was excited about the prospect of working with a relatively new school. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153For me, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a great opportunity,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said.<\/p>\n<p>About a third of the faculty is new to Carrboro High this year. The school will graduate its first senior class this year as well. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153A school benefits from having a senior class, because that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s who everybody looks up to,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Batten said. Last year, Carrboro High students \u00e2\u20ac\u0153kind of missed out on that.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<br \/>\nHe said he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also excited about helping the students develop Carrboro High traditions. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153This is the year when a tradition starts,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Batten said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll really get to decide what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to become a tradition at Carrboro High School.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>Apart from developing traditions, Batten said he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d really like for the school\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 140 seniors to succeed and would like to retain as many teachers as possible to develop instructional consistency. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153This has all the ingredients to be the best school in the district,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We want Carrboro to become the best school in the best district.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-schools"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3404\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}