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Photo Gallery Camp Lejeune’s top educator has been tapped for promotion and will soon leave the area after 28 years working for Camp Lejeune Dependent Schools.
Elizabeth Thomas, assistant superintendent for CLDS, has accepted a position as the deputy area superintendent for curriculum, instruction and assessment for the Department of Defense Education Activity’s stateside schools.
A North Carolinian by birth, she hails from Kinston, N.C., Thomas began her teaching career during 1970 with the North Carolina school system in Charlotte, N.C., and also taught for five years in Virginia.
She joined the Department of Defense Education Activity when she accepted a position as a reading specialist with the former Stone Street Elementary School aboard Camp Lejeune during 1981. She would later become the Stone Street Elementary’s assistant principal.
Throughout her years in education, from classroom teacher to school principal to assistant superintendent, Thomas has maintained the heart of a teacher.
“I am a reading teacher by profession. There’s no one best way for a child to learn to read. I like to help them unlock how they learn reading. I like seeing them get excited and grow,” said Thomas. “However, my real passion, no matter what subject I’m teaching, is working with kids.”
In 1985, Thomas became the principal of Tarawa Terrace I Primary School. One day, after spending four years at the school, then-superintendent Conrad Sloan called Thomas to his office.
“He wanted to see me,” she said. “And that’s not a good thing.”
Yet the meeting became a turning point in her career. Sloan told Thomas that he wanted her to become the principal of Brewster Middle School.
Having worked solely in elementary schools up to that point, Thomas was not sure she wanted to take on young people going through the transition period of middle school.
“I’m only five feet tall,” said Thomas of her thoughts at that point. “I didn’t know if that mattered or not.”
Conrad assuaged her fears. “He said, ‘You know kids and I’m confident you can do this,’” remembered Thomas.
Thus, during 1989, Thomas took leadership of Brewster Middle School and its students, teachers and staff.
Nervous that the middle school students may not be as well-behaved as her elementary school children, Thomas delayed holding a school assembly as long as possible.
Instead, she went room to room introducing herself to the students and letting them get to know her.
“Soon we’ll have an assembly,” she remembered telling the students. “And when we do, I will raise my hand, and then I want you to raise your hand and become quiet.”
When the time came for the students and teachers to gather in a common room for a school-wide meeting, Thomas’ introductions paid off.
“It was the best assembly in the world. I stood up in that gym and those kids filed in and there were 700 of them,” she said. “I raised my hand, and then they raised their hands and a hush fell over the crowd. It was a powerful thing.”
The assembly cemented Thomas’ belief in the importance of gaining students’ respect.
“Whatever I’ve done or wherever I’ve gone, I’ve gotten to know the kids,” she said.
After Brewster Middle School, Thomas served as principal for the former Stone Street and Berkeley Manor Elementary Schools, an instructional systems specialist for the school system, and then principal of Tarawa Terrace II Elementary School. She became the assistant superintendent for DODEA’s North Carolina District and CLDS during August 2006.
It was a position she had not sought as she was perfectly happy being in the schools, she said.
However, Thomas was able to draw on her years as a classroom teacher and principal to help CLDS educators improve their craft and provide a stable learning environment for the students.
“I think I am really good with people. We need administrators who can talk with and mentor teachers,” she said. “It’s almost like a coaching situation.”
Now, Thomas has been called to the “big leagues” of DODEA. She will begin the new job at DODEA’s headquarters in Peachtree City, Ga., Aug. 31. Her husband Lynn, who recently retired after 25 years with the City of Jacksonville, will accompany her on this new adventure.
Thomas said she hopes to bring her experience as CLDS’ assistant superintendent with her to help provide support to DODEA superintendents so they may in turn provide coaching and training to their staff.
Though she is looking forward to this change, Thomas said she will always cherish her time with CLDS.
“I’m really proud of the culture of the folks here aboard Camp Lejeune. It’s almost like the teachers and staff are a family. There’s a common goal and a common purpose,” she said.
