A Message from Our Principal

Deborah Flowers Davis

I have been honored to serve as the first principal for Anson County Early College High School, one of the first New Schools Project redesigned high schools in NC, located on the campus of South Piedmont Community College. Students at ACEC are dually enrolled and, upon graduation, can receive both a high school diploma and Associate’s degree. To date, ACEC has graduated two classes, 2009 and 2010. This experience has been challenging, humbling, and absolutely inspirational since it began in 2005. I cannot begin to express how the students at this school develop before our eyes to become accomplished students and leaders. Their educational and personal journeys make our faculty and staff want to get up each morning to watch them unfold, stretch, and grasp new experiences and knowledge. This school calls students to move out of their comfort zones, think and interact in new and collaborative ways, and take on challenges that they might avoid in other places. Watching that growth is energizing; it's why educators choose to teach. For me, personally, this leadership position has called me to do the very things this school calls students to do. I have faced new challenges, been forced to redefine things I thought I already knew, and learned to reach beyond my grasp to let school "become" rather than simply be what it has always been. I have learned at a new level what collaboration actually means, what true transitional programming for students should be, how to support students academically and personally in more effective ways, how to develop a true community of learners that involves all stakeholder groups, and how deep and how wide is the ability of every student. Each day is a challenge due to the cooperative nature of every element of this school. Every decision, no matter how simple on the surface, calls for collaborative thinking and innovative problem-solving at more complex levels. I have redefined ‘negotiation,’ ‘community outreach,’ ‘teaching and learning,’ ‘home-school relationships’– I have redefined everything, and I understand the elements of schooling on a different level now. I can say that I have been ‘taken to the threshing floor,’ ‘professionally developed,’ and ‘refined’ in ways I did not know existed in the previous 24 years of my experience prior to ACEC. We expect the same thing to happen for our students, as well, so that they walk into their futures after they leave us with the necessary tools to make their lives and this world a better place. Thus, this opportunity continues to force me to be a better professional and human being daily. I am confident that the entire faculty and staff here feel the same way. In my 29 years as an educator, I have remain student-focused; and I intentionally surround myself with a staff that has similar beliefs and vision for embracing the minds, hearts and souls of our young people. To that end, I am continually inspired by the dedication and efforts of our staff; the aspirations, dreams and performance of our students; and the unwavering trust, grounded in faith, from our parents and the community. This is a remarkable school community. Education, at its best, is an infinite chain of relationships, inquiry, and growth. Each link affixed securely to the next is what gives the chain its strength. How rewarding it is for me to be a “small link” in such a powerful chain that transforms student lives daily. Please visit and consider attending Anson County Early College - and become one of our links. Your presence will teach us more and make us stronger.

Sincerely