• Dr. Camille Hedrick is North Carolina PTA Principal of the Year

    Camille Hedrick in front of Panther Creek HS

  • May 30, 2017

    It’s all about family with Dr. Camille Hedrick. And the past year has reiterated how important it is to her both personally and professionally.

    As for the professional part, Dr. Hedrick believes the success of a school often hinges around its families.

    Family engagement

    “It’s about family engagement,” when asked why she thinks she was recently named the North Carolina PTA Principal of the Year. “I think that I have a good relationship with our PTSA, and I try to be open to parents and their concerns. I try to be responsive to their concerns, and I’m trying to constantly improve two-way communication.”

    It’s her strong PTSA – who nominated Dr. Hedrick for the state award – that she credits for the honor itself.

    “You have to see (the PTSA) as a partner organization to your school. You have to have open and real dialogue with your PTSA president,” she said. “They are not just fund-raisers, they are way more than that.”

    “They are conduits for expressing the concerns, needs and wants of parents and students. They are great sounding boards for new ideas.”

    Camille Hedrick chats with her students

    Strong partnership fosters real support

    This strong partnership has opened the door for Panther Creek’s PTSA to provide lots of support, including: 

    • Developing ways to recognize students for putting forth real effort in learning, not just honor roll students;
    • A school breakfast that celebrate students from each department who have excelled;
    • Strong support of the arts in all its forms: Music, dance, visual arts and literature;
    • Supporting the “Kudos for Catamounts” program, where teachers give gift cards provided by the PTSA to students who have shown strong character traits;
    • Movie nights for teachers, along with many other teacher appreciation events and activities, such as leaving surprises in teachers’ boxes and in the teachers’ lounge; and
    • Attending Catamount Coffees to support Dr. Hedrick when she has an open coffee hour once a month to listen to concerns and exchange ideas.

    “Their feedback and their facilitating feedback of other parents has given us better customer service,” said Dr. Hedrick of her supportive parents. “Most of the time the parents work together to answer each other’s questions. They say, ‘Let me help you navigate this.’”

    NCPTA Principal of the Year Dr. Camille Hedrick
    Personal loss, professional gains

    It’s impossible to mention Camille Hedrick’s success without thinking of her beloved husband Jim and the role he played in it. Jim Hedrick was principal of Athens Drive High School when he passed away unexpectedly last summer.

    “Losing Jim was both a personal loss and professional loss,” she said. “We literally met the first year we were both working. We were colleagues for 38 years.”

    “I feel that loss. There was a lot of trust in knowing I had a colleague standing beside me who had much the same history as I did.”

    His influence, however, lives on in their large, supportive family, her Panther Creek school family, and in the “sweet and validating” collegial relationships she enjoys with her fellow principals across the district.

    “I work with people who are givers, who take care of people. That’s what we do for a living,” she said.

    “In Wake County, no principal stands alone. We all take care of each other. We are all there.”