Green Hills AEA welcomes new Field Director

Kerry Newman was welcomed to the Green Hills AEA opening day Monday virtually. There were a multitude of Zoom meetings where she got to introduce herself to the AEA staff and learn about them in return.

Newman is a big relationship person. She values developing relationships with colleagues and schools. The need now to physically distance has been difficult for her but she is learning to be creative in the various virtual ways that she can connect with staff members.

“The AEA opening day we played ice breaker games like two truths and a lie and tried and laughed a lot in order to get to know each other,” said Newman. “And I am really impressed with the people that work out of the Osceola office. They’re top notch.”

After having worked in a school setting since 1987 Newman knows she will miss smiling at kids in hallways but is able to make a big difference in her position supporting school principals in the Green Hills AEA region. She is coming off 5 years as a middle school principal and understands the importance the outside source of support the AEA gives schools.

“The mission of the AEA is support and advocate service and that’s exactly what I want to do, so this job is a good fit for me,” said Newman. “The AEA is such a caring organization that they kind of trust me to do the job the way I think it should be done.”

Newman has three rules that she has brought with her from being a principal into the AEA. Rule one is take care of yourself, rule two is take care of others, and rule three is ask for help when you need it.

The AEA has its own guidelines when it comes to keeping staff protected during the COVID-19 Pandemic. The threshold to close an AEA office is 15 percent of the population in the county has tested positive for COVID-19. Due to this rule, the Osceola Green Hills AEA office is closed, thought AEA staff continue to work from home or their school buildings.

“The AEA is taking the most restrictive guidelines, so we have to wear masks or face shields,” said Newman. “Whatever school our staff goes in they will follow the most restricted path.”

AEA staff also has mandated training’s on prevention tactics. They now have a sign in, sign out process with a QR code in order to do contact tracing. Since AA staff serve several schools they are now validating their calendars every Friday to also help with contact tracing which is so important because Green Hills AEA staff serve 50 different schools.