This year, Athens Intermediate School will welcome Jennifer Sallee to their team as an assistant principal.

“My mother, aunt, and both maternal grandparents were English professors, so I knew I wanted to teach English from a young age,” said Sallee. “My desire to work in administration stems from conversations I had with my teachers while in high school.”

She went on to say, “they complained about policies that prevented them from being able to teach effectively. I decided then that I wanted to be in a position to support teachers and help to alleviate some of the challenges that teachers face.”

Sallee began teaching in January of 2008 in the Metro Nashville Public Schools where she taught high school English for five years. She then went to Williamson County, Tenn. where she taught at Brentwood Middle School for two years.

After Brentwood, she came to Athens as an EL Specialist teaching English language development to English learners at Athens Intermediate and then at Athens High School.

During the 2016-17 school year, she became the assistant principal at Athens Renaissance School. For the following three school years, she was the assistant principal at the iAcademy at Athens Elementary School.

For the last two years, Sallee has served as the Federal Programs Administrator. She will continue in this role in addition to being the assistant principal at AIS.

“Although I am still serving in this role, I have taken on the additional role of assistant principal because I miss how rewarding it is to get to work directly with students, parents, and teachers,” said Sallee.

She is excited to work with fellow assistant principal, Orlando Turner, and Principal Cindy Davis in the coming school year.

“Together we have plans to help our teachers to accelerate learning and overcome the effects of learning loss that are still being felt as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Sallee.

She went on to say, “we are revitalizing our AVID program school-wide and looking to bridge the gap between the themed academies of our four traditional elementary schools and the career and technical opportunities offered at Athens Middle School through implementing Project the Lead Way.”

Sallee hopes students at AIS feel supported.

“I want all students at Athens Intermediate School to know that their teachers and administrators care about them as individuals and want the very best for them,” said Sallee.” I want them to know that they are part of a community where we support one another.”

She went on to say, “with this foundation, our students will be able to more easily overcome obstacles and achieve their full potential.”