Whiting Selected as Iowa's Principal of the Year
 Feelhaver
Elementary Principal Linda Whiting (BA ’66/MA
’84) is always looking for ways to tell her students
how proud she is of them. Now the students, teachers, and
parents of Feelhaver, located in Fort Dodge, Iowa, have good
reason to be proud of her.
Whiting
was selected as the 2002 Iowa Elementary Principal of the
Year. The recognition brought with it a white-tie dinner with
U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige in Washington, D.C.,
a plaque, a reception at the Iowa Governor’s Office
and a reception in the Fort Dodge School District attended
by nearly 300 well wishers, including some friends and family
Whiting hadn’t seen in years.
The award
is sponsored by the School Administrators of Iowa, a professional organization.
Every year each of Iowa’s 15 Area Education Agencies nominates
one person for the award. A committee of Iowa educators—chaired
by the previous year’s
award recipient—interviews three finalists before selecting the state
winner. A similar process takes place in the other 49 states.
Whiting,
who was born in Spencer, Iowa, and taught elementary school in Fort
Dodge for nearly 20 years before becoming Feelhaver’s principal,
says she had known since she was a child that she wanted to be a teacher.
“I
loved school, loved teaching, loved learning,” Whiting
says. “I never considered being anything else.”
One reason
Whiting says she was nominated for the award is that she is enthusiastic
and committed to seeing students succeed. She spends little time behind
her desk, preferring to be in the hallways and classrooms, interacting
with students, teachers, and staff. Each lunch hour, she helps serve students
their meal. Each quarter she reads all 230 report cards and sends personal
letters to students praising them for their successes or, alternately,
urging them to do better. And she maintains a “Principal’s
Proud” list of students who are referred to her office for doing
something admirable and then recognized by the entire school at assemblies.
“I was a cheerleader in high school and I think I still am,” Whiting
says. “I can’t do the jumps anymore, but the spirit’s
still there.” –by Stephen Pradarelli
 
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