ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, June 20, 1996 TAG: 9606200020
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: INDIAN VALLEY
SOURCE: LISA APPLEGATE STAFF WRITER
She still can't talk about the last day of school.
"My staff has been very kind, and they've generated quite a few tears," said Principal Bonnie Smith. "Thursday was a trying day."
After 22 years with Indian Valley Elementary school, Smith decided to call it quits this year. She leaves behind her most important assets from the school: an adoring staff and two generations of loyal students.
"She's an excellent role model, as a professional and in her daily life," said Indian Valley teacher and former student Virginia Allen. "Everyone looks up to her - she's just a fixture."
The staff wouldn't let such an essential part of the school slip away quietly. Last Thursday, the final day of school, every class presented a skit. A third-grade class changed the words in a multiplication song to fit Smith.
"The fifth grade read a story about her last day, and they included characters - and I do mean characters - from the class for it," said Carol Cox, the school secretary.
Those skits started the tears flowing, Smith said, and they didn't stop the rest of the day.
She's put in 30 years with Floyd County Schools; the first seven as a teacher at Willis, Floyd and Indian Valley elementary schools. Even though retirement is tough, she said change is always good thing.
In 1965, when she started as a second-grade teacher, her goal was to move to the high school to teach history. Five years after she fell in love with that first class, her sights turned to the principal's office.
As a student, Allen's fondest memory of the soft-spoken, smiling principal was in her other capacity: as a librarian. From 1978 to 1990, Smith served double duty, reading books to each class and running the school at the same time.
"She'd read part of a book each week and I couldn't wait to get to the library to find out what happened next," Allen said.
Smith said nowadays students don't read like they used to. They've been exposed to much more, and spend more time watching television or using computers.
"More parents are working outside of the home," she said. "Sometimes, parents are more lenient now."
Smith sees positive changes in education, especially with computers because, "they can bring the outside world in."
The community, she said, has grown more transient than in past decades, but remains supportive of the school.
Throughout the years, Smith said, she's tried to keep a constant, strong educational environment for all of the 160 or so students. She would keep up with the latest curriculum developments while learning every child's name and talking with each of them.
One of her greatest strengths, said Cox, is her low-key, supportive approach to staff.
"She allowed her staff a great deal of freedom. We're much more like a family than a business, with a free exchange of ideas." She said Smith, whom she calls "Mom," "has always been there as kind of a rudder for us."
Jennifer Nowlin, an educator from Patrick County, will replace Smith.
Smith said her first summer of new-found freedom is hers to relax and read and visit with friends. After that, she figures she'll probably volunteer in her old stomping grounds.
"After this many years," Cox said, "I do believe that she can't go cold turkey."
As for the staff, Cox said, "It'll take us a while to get back in the swing without her."
LENGTH: Medium: 75 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Gene Dalton. 1. Bonnie Smith's face shows how much sheby CNBcared for students at Indian Valley School as she hugged them on her
last day as principal. 2. Bonnie Smith enjoys a light moment during
a farewell party given by her associates in the Floyd school system.
color.