Donnetta Trice Moore

I've been in education for 25 years, with 22 of those years in Flint Community Schools. My journey into education wasn't what I originally planned - I always wanted to be an accountant. When I was in high school, my accounting teacher told me I'd be a great accounting teacher, but I said no way, I'm going to work at a bank and have my own office! I went to college, got my degrees in accounting, and was working at a bank doing exactly what I said I would do. I had been promoted to Accounting Assistant 1 and was living my dream. But then the bank was bought out, and my department was eliminated. I either had to go to Detroit without a guaranteed position or take the severance package. I was reading The Prayer of Jabez at the time, and I had asked God to enlarge my territory - I didn't realize that meant losing my job to gain my purpose. I knew my calling was to work with youth, though I thought it would just be at church. So I got on the substitute teacher list to see what direction I wanted to take. The first school that called me was Northridge, and I remember thinking I didn't want to go there because those kids were bad, but I went anyway and met Dr. Simone. I ended up loving it and wouldn't trade it for the world. I started as a day-to-day substitute in the 2001-2002 school year, got my first full-time teaching assignment at International Academy at Flint the following year, and came to Flint Community Schools in 2004 as a long-term guest teacher. I pursued my master's degree in education, got my teaching certification, and received full-time employment the following year. I was a teacher for 15 years in Flint Community Schools, then became an administrator 8 years ago - 5 years as an assistant principal and the last 3 years as the principal of Homestead Middle School. I'm living in my purpose, and I wouldn't trade the journey at all. In the next 5 years, I see myself having my own school, being the superintendent or director of my own school.