Written by Emma Sonneborn

In a year full of change, we welcomed new staff members to our school. We welcomed a new principal, Dr. Latoyia Bailey. We had the opportunity to meet with her and interview her to ask about coming into Rush. She gave us insight into her start in education and what about Rush makes us special to her. We thank Dr. Bailey for the opportunity for this interview and we can not wait to see what you bring to the school this year!

Emma: How did you get started in education?

Dr. Bailey: Wow. Okay, so I started college as an ed major. I started as a journalism agent and I had a conversation with my dad and he said he could see me becoming a teacher. Now, by this time, I was a junior in college and he just sparked his interest in me. I didn’t even know it was there and the following semester when I went back into my junior year, I started taking education classes. I had a double major print journalism and English education and that’s how I started. It was just a conversation with my dad and something that my dad saw in me. 

Emma: What brought you to Rush?

Dr. Bailey: What brought me to Rush was my love of the arts. Also, because I saw a need for more diversity at our school and I wanted a challenge. This is a part of the city that I had not explored much of before, but had a desire to know more about and so that’s what made me apply. Even before I applied, I drove up here and I went around the whole campus and I got this feeling of needing to be here, not just needing to serve, but also needing to know that there was something for me to get here. I think that anytime you become a part of a new environment, there ought to be something that you can give, but also something that you can get from the experience. And I felt that from the moment that I came here. 

Emma: What is it like coming to run a school while being in a Covid world?

Dr. Bailey: It is harder than I thought it was. So I’m new right? When I listen to other leaders who’ve been doing this for 15 years, 10 years, 20 years. They are also having a tough time, and it makes me feel. And I know this might sound strange, but it makes me feel good. It makes me feel that I’m not alone in this because the fact that I have had struggles has nothing to do with the fact that I’m new. Covid’s new for everybody, right? And so we’re all going through this together and the fact that I have so much support from my assistant superintendent and from other principals in my network, it’s really, really great. It’s helpful like this. This phone is a lifeline to me. To be able to text someone to be able to call someone to get help is something that like I said, is new to all of us and we’re figuring it out together and I feel like, here we are November 15th. I feel like I’m on a winning team. If that makes sense. Even though every day it’s still hard, it’s not as hard as it could be, if I were not a part of an awesome team. 

Emma: What do you look forward to the most while running the school here?

Dr. Bailey: Seeing the kids! I don’t have my own children. All of my god kids are pretty much grown up now. And so, when I come to school and I hear the different names, the different nicknames that people have given me and having them coming up to me, giving me hugs and pounds and telling me how great it is to see me, how much they appreciate me, that’s awesome. I came here and the staff here is amazing. The fact that they work so well together with me being new is very, very helpful. So, when I have to get up every day, at 4:30 in the morning, it doesn’t hurt. It’s not painful because I know I’m coming into a great experience, not something that is going to be a crushing blow. I will have had several smiles on. 

Emma: Is there any advice you have for the students as they navigate this year after either not being in the building for over a year or not being in the building at all?

Dr. Bailey: My advice is to be flexible. I know for our 11th and 12th graders, prior to coming back into school, there are things that you wanted to do. There were things, traditions and different things that you couldn’t wait to have when you became an 11th and 12th grader. Now, here you are and things are so very different. I would say to any of our students from 9th all the way up to 12th grade to be flexible because this is so new and no one else has ever experienced this in the 21st century. We have to be open to doing things different, but also making sure that we have fun but in a safe way. So far, I’d say that 90% to 95% of our students are very flexible. They’re open to change and they’re open to doing things in a new way as long as it’s not definite. I would say in life, you know, you definitely have to be that way. When you look at a tree in a storm, the ones who bend like palm trees are the ones who last. Then there are ones like a mighty old oak tree, who are rigid and who’ve been around for a hundred years. Sometimes, they’re the ones who blow over because they’re not as pliable. So, in life, we have to learn to be pliable and not rigid, or you’ll be blown away.

Emma: What at Rush do you see that is different from previous schools you have been at?

Dr. Bailey: The thing at Rush that is different is that we come together and solve issues and problems that are different from a lot of previous schools. Sometimes people want to handle issues by arguing and fighting with their hands and not fighting with their minds or fighting with their hearts but fighting with their hands. Something that I find here is that you have more students who are willing to come together and talk about it and have a conversation about it rather than going and being angry and fighting about it. That is such a mature way of handling things. I wish more people in the world would handle things that way. And I see our school is becoming a pinnacle for the way that we handle issues. That’s one of the things I absolutely love about our students here and the way that we handle issues.