Angela Gordon: Secretary to Doctor

Many people around this small town may recognize the lady pictured to the right, as she was born here and has worked in the school system here, and raised two children here. What you might not know, is that this lady is one of my inspirations. Angela Gordon, or “Miss Angie,” as I commonly refer to her, began work over 30 years ago as a Special Education floating aid at Jasper County Middle School (JCMS) and as recently as 2009 earned her Doctorate degree.

I got to know Angie as a mentor as a cheerleading coach, and a face that I commonly saw around the school. I was also in the same grade as Antoine, her oldest child, so I guess there was a familiarity there too.

I asked Kathy Mudd, the editor, if I could interview and do this feature on her as a teacher even though she retired at the end of December. The answer was yes. I thought…I know something about this lady, but little did I know there was a lot that I didn’t.

When I talked with Miss Angie, I learned that she began work in the school system in 1981 and was the Special Education floating aid at JCMS. It was here that she followed students with disabilities around to different classes, primarily seventh and eighth graders.

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One of her first memories was of the heat in the former high school A wing and the current remodeled Central Office building. At the time, there was no central heat and air in the building and it was extremely hot during the summer months. The memory was of one of her many mentors, a teacher, the late B.J. Veal, who allowed the students to cook an egg on the window seal of the classroom. This experiment got the attention of the school board and there seemed to be an a/c unit put in thereafter.

She also recalled that her first paycheck, which came in monthly increments, was for $301 take-home pay. “This was enough at the time, as I was not married and had no children, but looking back it doesn’t seem like enough.”

In 1985, Miss Angie was hired to move to the front office in the school as a clerical aid. It was here that she joined Joanne Miller, secretary and bookkeeper at the time. Ms. Miller was then transferred to a different building, and just like that Miss Angie became the secretary.

At this point, the only education that Angie had was a high school diploma. She stayed in the secretary position for 17 years, seeing many changes in the school system. She saw many principals come and go through the years. She began her tenure under Dr. Julian Cope, and watched him move from principal to superintendent. She learned under leaders such as Mr. Jimmy Jordan, the late Coach Lester Davis, Coach Kenneth Daniels and Mr. Dan Arp.

During these years, Angie had also gotten married to Stanley Gordon and the couple had two children, Antoine in 1983, and Alexis in 1988.

“After 20 years in the school system, after Mr. Arp died, I did some soul searching,” she said. It just so happened that Dr. Cope and Gordon College had entered into an agreement that they would come to a site in Jasper County. They met on the school campus and were put there with the intention to give the opportunity and encourage the Monticello community to further their education, if interested. There were only seven people enrolled in the class, which required 10; therefore, the college didn’t stay.

In June of 1998, she had one semester under her belt. Angie was determined to stay enrolled but her only options were to now travel to Jackson or Barnesville. She decided to carpool to Jackson with Karen Tyler, and she completed her Associate’s degree in Barnesville in 2000. She then attended Mercer University in Covington to finish her undergrad in middle grades education.

Whew, talk about a busy, busy lady-and all the while she was still working as a secretary and cheerleading coach for Jasper County schools, while being a wife and mother. She was also proud to say that she was the first in her family to graduate from college.

When her mother passed, Angie decided to quit work and go to school full-time to focus on education; however, there were too many bills to stop work outright. As a result, she became a paraprofessional for the newly formed alternative school at the old Washington Park building.

It wasn’t until 2002, two weeks before her son Antoine graduated from high school, that Angie earned her undergraduate degree, which was her timely goal.

After earning this degree, Angie was hired to teach fourth grade reading/English-Language Arts (ELA) at Washington Park under principal Tony Tanner and Shawne Holder, instructional coach.

In 2004, Angie began work on her Master’s degree where she focused on foundations in education. In 2005, she began her Specialist in technology and management administration education. She said, “I was going to stop after my Specialist, but toward the end of my program, I got a fever and wanted to learn more-as much as I could, I was interested.”

In 2006, she began working toward her Doctorate which she earned from the University of Nova Southeastern. “I took the long route through my education and I enjoyed every bit of it.” She worked on her degrees through a blended model of education, traveling to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., for orientation, working at Walt Disney World for an internship in Orlando and taking classes in Macon with an instructor “face to face.” The remainder of her classes were completed on-line. She finished all requirements and earned her Doctorate in Educational Leadership in 2009.

I asked Miss Angie about her earnings and if they increased with each degree and she said that yes, the salary was better but the monies spent on education outweighed her raises. In 2007-08, she continued to work, teaching third-eighth grade gifted students for one year and was hired as the alternative lead teacher at JCMS for the 2008-2009 school year. In 2009-2010 she became the instructional lead teacher at the middle school under Monica McWhorter, principal. At the beginning of 2010-11, Dr. Gordon was hired as assistant principal at the middle school for curriculum and instruction and started cross-training with Dr. Adria Griffin on Title I documents in preparation of a state audit.

In 2011, Dr. Gordon went to Jasper County High School as assistant principal part time and Title I Coordinator part time where she spent two and a half days at the high school and two and a half days at the central office. She continued working in this capacity until she retired December 1, 2012 after 31 years in the system. Her retirement came due to a health scare and she assures me that she is “fine” now.

Although retired, it’s not all rest and relaxation for Dr. Gordon – as she works two days a week as a Title I consultant for the district and teaches early childhood courses at Southern Crescent, as she has done since 2005.

Currently she “is enjoying getting more rest,” and that the best part is not having that constant feeling that she needs to “catch up.” “I do miss the students. I always emphasized to them that no matter where you come from, you can reach for the stars and do anything that you want.”

She is quick to tell you that she; herself grew up on Mason Street, here in Jasper County. She came from a household where neither parent finished high school in the traditional way, but both ended up going back to earn that diploma. Her father died when she was 8 years old and her mother raised her along with four older brothers. She said, “it was never verbalized that you must earn a high school education, but somehow it was understood in my family.”

Dr. Gordon sited her biggest challenge through all of her continuing education was having two small children at home. “Stanley worked rotating shifts at the time and his parents were our saviors. They would take the kids to and from and gave them so much Dairy Queen that they didn’t want to eat at home,” she said laughing.

“I will always encourage people to go on to college or technical school or any higher education institution,” she said toward the end of our chat…And that is just what she did for me.

While Dr. Gordon continues to be involved by aiding in continuing to find ways to help students be successful, she sees that technology is taking over in schools, becoming vital to students and learning. She sees it as “it’s hard for kids to come to us knowing how to use it all [technology] and we don’t have it at school.

If we can’t teach the kids using the technology that is needed to gain job achieving skills, then that puts our students at a disadvantage. In Jasper County we have come a long way, but there is still a lot to be done to help our students be competitive in the 21st Century job market.”