At the beginning of the 2022-23 school year, Mrs. Berry became the new principal of our school. She’s done a great job leading our school so far, and she has some great plans for the future. The other day, I had the opportunity to interview her about her experience so far as principal, and some of the things she’s doing at Wylie.

Mrs. Berry has been at Wylie for eight years. She began her teaching career in 2008 and came to Wylie in 2015. She then got into administration by becoming an assistant principal in 2019 and remained in that role until this year. “It’s been an easy transition,” she says, “I already know the teachers, I know the campus, and I know the administration.” She said that Mr. Smith, the previous principal at Wylie High School, helped by bringing her into conversations last year to help hand the head principal job over to her.

One of the first things she wanted to implement when she became principal was to make the school feel alive. “I wanted to bring the campus to life. I wanted people to enjoy being here after COVID because it took the wind out of a lot of schools, and we were still even dealing with it last year. I want to let school be a place where you can learn but have fun, and people are working hard.” She wishes for students and staff to enjoy coming to school each day and be able to enjoy a positive atmosphere.

One difference between being assistant principal and head principal is her daily tasks. In her previous role, most of her meetings were planned, and she could look at a calendar to see what her week would look like. Whereas now, as the main principal, Mrs. Berry has to deal with what comes her way every day. She still has meetings, but they might not be planned as far in advance, and there are plenty of things that happen each day that you can’t necessarily plan or prepare for.

“I love pep rallies, and I love that we do so many spirit things.” One of Mrs. Berry’s favorite traditions is that we brought back the band leading the school to pep rallies. It helps get everyone more involved, instead of just walking to the gym like you would any other time of the day.

There are many reasons why Mrs. Berry wanted to get into administration. One way she realized that she wanted to play a bigger role was when she was at a different teaching job, and she got to start sitting in some of the meetings. She started working on her master’s degree and realized that she liked being behind the scenes of why things happens the way they do. Being a principal allows her to understand students more, better understand family dynamics, and just be able to bring a good attitude and encourage people throughout the school. “I never had goals of being a head principal. My career goals have always been to enjoy what I do every day, to find joy, and to feel like I’m serving a purpose. I would just follow whatever doors opened, and however I felt that God was leading me.” Becoming head principal was just a door opening for her to enjoy what she does.

She loves participating in pep rallies, and loves football season. ” I just love watching people get to do what they love to do.” When she was in high school, she was a cheerleader, played basketball, and ran cross country and track. One of her hidden talents is that she can tap dance, and her favorite cafeteria food is a stuffed crust alfredo chicken pizza that the cafeteria used to serve.

Mrs. Berry loves being at Wylie and has already done some amazing things for our school. She’s done a great job of stepping into the role of principal and is an amazing leader for our school.

Photo credits: wyliebulldogs.org and wyliesports.com