Icing ON THE cake ’

New principal starts classes today at Conway Christian

By Sara Greene

LITTLE ROCK — While many public schools started Monday, today is the first day of classes for students at Conway Christian School. It is also the first day for the high school’s new principal, Fred Ramsey.

“My favorite part of the first day of school is visiting the classrooms after we get started to meet the students,” Ramsey said.

Conway Christian School has about 530 students in kindergarten through 12th and more than 70 employees.

“My biggest challenge is getting familiar with the differences between public education and private and parochial education. For example, the finances are different, because we have to raise all the money we spend. That’s one of the big differences,” Ramsey said.

A graduate of Vilonia High School, Ramsey worked for the Arkansas State Highway Transportation Department as a draftsman for a survey crew before attending the University of Central Arkansas. He earned his Bachelor of Science in education in 1971 and his Master of Science in education in 1975 from University of Central Arkansas in Conway.

“My high school math teacher, Earl Parks, inspired me to become a teacher. He had worked for the highway department, too, and he just didn’t teach math out of the book, he explained to us how we would usemath in our jobs,” Ramsey said.

Ramsey’s first job was teaching at Beebe Middle School in White County for five years, then math and science at Greenbrier High School for two years. He served as the principal, counselor and math teacher at Shirley High School for 16 years.

He said people who are considering careers in education should spend a lot of time in the setting to make sure it is what they really want to do.

“The best part of being aneducator is just having the opportunity to work with kids in their educational pursuits, as well as in their personal lives as a mentor,” Ramsey said.

Ramsey said families have changed a lot since he was a student. His father was a welder and his mother stayed busy raising 12 children.

“I think the big difference in school between now and when I was in school is it was rare to find a student who didn’t live with both biological parents. Now it is rare to find a student who does live with both biological parents,” Ramsey said.

Ramsey and his wife, Brenda,spent a year in Houston, Texas, working at the Houston Achievement Place, which is a social services facility that helps children, youth and families.

“We always had the desire to work with troubled young people. It was tough, but rewarding,” Ramsey said.

After returning to the state, he worked as the principal at Rose Bud High School for 13 years.

“I think of my 36 years of education experience like a fourlayer cake: Beebe, Greenbrier, Shirley and Rose Bud. The opportunity here really is the icing on the cake,” Ramsey said.

River Valley Ozark, Pages 63, 64 on 08/21/2008