Potomac Leader Named Virginia Middle School Principal of Year

Potomac Middle School Principal Benita Stephens knows her school's place in the community. With a high-poverty student body in an economic recession, the school is a hub for social services, not just education.

"I worry more this year than I've ever worried before" about students' well-being, she said.

But despite the economy, the school is racking up achievements. In the three years since Stephens opened the 1,100-student school in Dumfries, the trophy case near the front door has filled with awards from music competitions, and standardized exam scores have risen. Now Stephens has been named Virginia's middle school principal of the year by the Virginia Association of Secondary School Principals.

Administrators from the Prince William County school system cited Stephens's work to integrate English for Speakers of Other Languages and special education students into regular classes, her implementation of a block schedule to prepare students for high school and her advocacy of and ideas for music programs as reasons they nominated her for the award.

Stephens, an Atlanta native, has been a principal for eight years (before Potomac, she helmed Rippon Middle School in Woodbridge) and an administrator for 14.

Danielle Hodge, president of Potomac's parent-teacher-student organization and a secretary and assistant at the school, said Stephens fosters a warm atmosphere.

"Students call her Mama Panther," after the school's mascot, Hodge said. "It really is an affectionate thing, because they see her as the mom of the school."

Stephens has a friendly air in the halls, shooing kids to class, joking with some, disciplining others for tardiness or too-grownup displays of affection. But she has concerns about some of her students' family situations.

"When you lose your barely-making-ends-meet job, that's a problem," she said. "There's more homelessness than I've ever seen before."

This winter, the school organized a coat and gift drive to help students take home presents for themselves and their siblings.

She's looking to next year as she wraps up classes and oversees this year's state Standards of Learning tests. This fall, seven or eight student teachers will help in the classrooms. Stephens said she looks forward to the help with a touch of nervousness, because she will have the responsibility of ensuring that the student teachers and the children have a good experience.

Hodge said the school community had a dependable leader.

"If you don't have," Hodge said, "she provides."