He’s an ex-“Chief Learner and Dream Maker,” a master whistler with a love of stories, winner of two awards, principal of a growing school – and to top it all off, he loves to cook.That’s Tony Burks, the Principal of the Early College at Guilford, and recipient of Guilford County’s 2005 Secondary Principal of the Year award. This award is the second he has won since he began his career at the Early College in 2002. The first was in 2003, when he received the Joseph B. Whitehead Educator of Distinction Award.
Burks was born in Dothan, Alabama, where he lived for 18 years before going to Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia. He graduated with a degree in philosophy and went on to teach at the University School of Nashville and then Crockett Elementary School in Brentwood, Tennessee. At Crockett he came up with the title “Chief Learner and Dream Maker” to describe his role as principal.
“The Superintendent at the time hated that title,” said Tony. “I printed business cards and letterheads with the title because it was about something bigger than him. I thought, no title’s going to change how I care for this position.”
In 2002, the Early College at Guilford opened, and Burks became the principal. He also serves on the Board of Advisors for the North Carolina New Schools Project, a project to reform schools across North Carolina. The reforms began as an attempt to build more early and middle colleges across the state, but currently addresses issues faced in all public schools – like student-teacher relationships.
“I would never have rushed out and tried to strike up a conversation with my school principal,” said Burks. “Why would I have wanted to talk to him? But in this day and age, it just makes sense. We have a responsibility as educators to help kids know who and what they are.”
That’s one of the Early College’s defining characteristics, and something that Burks strongly supports – the relationship between students and teachers. Burks encourages every one of the 180 Early College students to come talk to him if they have any problems or need any advice. The same goes for all faculty of the school. Burks even gives students his cell phone number in case they need to reach him.
“For a number of kids, it takes them a while to really believe it. I say for every kid who arrives, it takes a semester, if not a year, before they say ‘Okay, he says if I’m having problems I can call,’ because you have to be comfortable,” said Burks. “and this is not the norm.”
Students are well aware that they can go to Burks.
“Out of any public school administrator or faculty member, he is by far the most accessible one I have ever met,” said Early College senior Spenser Rubin. “Any student can get a hold of him pretty much any time and he will make time for them.”
“I’ve definitely used his cell phone number several times,” said Emily Sullivan, another senior at the Early College.
This philosophy of keeping students at the center of things seems to have worked. Last year, the Early College was one of the top 10 fastest growing schools in the state, and Burks is getting recognized for it. He beat more than 10 nominees to receive the Principal of the Year award.
“He deserves every honor that they have out there,” said Early College senior Catherine Knisley.
“It’s pretty humbling,” Burks said. “The downside of the award is people think you’re perfect, and I’m not nearly perfect. I’m fully human, and I think that the award reminds me that we’re not perfect. We strive to be perfect, so I strive to be the person who is worthy of this honor, but I know that I’m not perfect.”
Once Burks retires from being a principal, he knows what he’s going to do.
“I do not see myself working as a principal for forever and a day,” said Burks. “I think you need to do this when you have a certain kind of mind frame. I don’t know when that’s going to change, but when it does, I’ll grow up and do something different. And that something different for me is to go to cooking school – my ultimate dream is to own a Bed and Brunch. Bed and Breakfast is too early after getting up at 4 or 5 [a.m.] for this job.”
For now, Burks continues leading the school with his philosophy of keeping students first and making sure they’re comfortable with their faculty. For him, they provide the ultimate reward.
“While this is a cool award, and the [2003 Award] was a cool award, the true award for me is that former students of mine are now teachers. That’s when you walk away like ‘wow, maybe I wasn’t so bad after all!’