Principal Ellen Lane shares wisdom from her 30 years in the Dougherty County School System

ALBANY — After spending 30 years in the Dougherty County School system as a teacher, assistant principal and principal, Lincoln Elementary Magnet School Principal Ellen Lane will close the book on her career when she retires at the end of June.

Over those three decades, she has seen the good, bad and the ugly of the DCSS and will retire after spending three years at Lincoln, considered to be one of the crown jewels of a system of more than 15,000 students.

Lincoln’s test scores consistently rank among the highest of the system’s 14 elementary schools. It is the only elementary school not zoned, and students must test to gain admittance. Parents are also required to sign a guarantee of participation in the education of their children and school activities.

The combination of quality teachers, bright students and parental participation make the principal’s job at Lincoln a rewarding one.

“To me, the biggest challenge to me the system faces has been parental and community involvement,” Lane, who was born in LaGrange and moved to Albany at the age of five, said. “Parents today have very busy lives, but we need their support. Our parents must sign a contract saying they will abide by the rules of Lincoln. You have to have very high expectations with the right staff all working on the same page working toward the same goal.

“I believe for the most part children will meet our expectations. If you don’t expect much you don’t get much. But I will also tell you very firmly that when we have our start of year meeting with teachers, I always tell them I don’t care if you take out a book or teach a thing the first week or two. Your most important job is to let the children know that you care about them, you love them and develop a relationship with them.

Lane pointed to some specific examples.

“Teachers need to know their students have a dog named ‘Charlie’ and their grandmother’s birthday was yesterday and ask, ‘How did the party go?’” Lane said. “Once you develop a relationship with a child, they will perform much better for you.”

Lane strongly disagreed with the perception that the children at Lincoln are different from those at the county’s other elementary schools.

“I don’t see it that way at all,” she said. “Our children come from all areas of Albany and Dougherty County. I just think we expect a lot of them and the parents know if they don’t back us up with discipline, academics, homework and things like that, they will be getting a call from us.”

The veteran educator says parental involvement is a huge factor in Lincoln’s success.

“Parental involvement is important to us, but we don’t have a lot of in-the-building parental involvement, Lane said. “But we have a lot of parental involvement on homework, projects, preparing for tests and making sure the children do their work.”

Over the past three years, that philosophy has paid dividends in the school’s consistently high test scores.

According to the DCSS, during Lane’s watch, Lincoln has continually increased student achievement and stayed among the top schools in Dougherty County. In 2014, Lincoln’s College and Career Readiness Performance Index score, 90, was second only to Lake Park Elementary School. That same year, Lincoln received four stars from the CCRPI’s School Climate Star Rating system, the highest in the system.

“We look at our CCRPI scores as a reward for our teachers and our students,” Lane said. “We also have a fairly healthy competition with Lake Park.”

As retirement edges closer, Lane wants to take some time off, but would not rule out returning to the DCSS in a part-time capacity.

“I would love to do anything I could to help new principals, show them some shortcuts a while remaining within protocol,” Lane said. “I wouldn’t mind helping new teachers. I wouldn’t mind doing that at all. Because I believe if they were taught to put aside teaching for a few days and let’s learn to develop relationships with these children and let them know we love them and care about them. And if Johnny doesn’t have any clothes let’s go to Target and get him some … I wouldn’t mind doing that at all.”