By Melissa Dunson

mdunson@joplinglobe.com

It took walking away from education for a few years for new Joplin elementary school principals Elaina Edman and Sam Rogers to realize it was where their hearts belonged.

Edman, a 1977 Carthage High School graduate, taught elementary and middle-school art for years at area public and private schools before leaving the professional to care for her two children and help her husband run a family business.

Rogers, a 1990 Carthage High School graduate, taught elementary school and alternative school in Carthage for several years before he took a sales job with Leggett & Platt and spent the next five years living in Detroit, Mich., and Los Angeles, Calif.

But neither teacher could stay away from the classroom.

Edman returned to teaching in 2003 as a Joplin art teacher serving multiple elementary schools.

“Often, I was in six schools every week,” Edman said, laughing she recounted her schedule. She also served as the district’s art specialist.

It wasn’t long after Edman started teaching full-time again that she felt drawn to administration.

“There was this point where I thought, ‘I could do this’,” Edman said. “I wasn’t brave enough to deal with some of the challenges in the past. There were a whole bunch of factors that came together to make me want to do this, but a lot of it I think was just growing up.”

Rogers said several years of selling in major metropolitan areas made him miss the Midwest and his previous profession.

“Education kind of chose me right out of college because of my degree,” Rogers said of his bachelor’s degree in elementary education from the University of Missouri-Columbia. “But through this I was allowed to choose education for myself. I realized I belonged in education.”

Rogers returned to teaching with a job in Webb City teaching seventh-grade science for three years.

Edman and Rogers both became assistant principals in Joplin in 2006.

Edman became assistant principal at Cecil Floyd Elementary under principal Doug Adams, and Rogers got the job at Memorial Middle School under Steve Gilbreath.

Earlier this year, Edman was named principal of Cecil Floyd as Adams retired, and Rogers was named principal of Stapleton Elementary, Joplin’s second largest elementary school, as principal Marilyn Alley retired.

They both started their new jobs July 1.

Big responsibility

Both Edman and Rogers said this new step into principalship carries a lot of responsibility with it. In their respective buildings, the buck will stop with them.

“You’re always solving problems,” Edman said.

“My e-mail volume has increased by a lot already,” Rogers said on his first official day as principal.

Rogers said he looks forward to setting forth vision and strategies as he leads the school and still being around in five and 10 years to see them play out.

Edman said she is most excited about leading her team of teachers and said she wants to reach behind her and help other teachers become administrators.

“I had a lot of different leaders helping me through this process,” she said. “I would love to continue to support these folks who are thinking about taking that next step.”

While both Edman and Rogers said there are things they miss about being inside the classroom, they said they love the feeling of helping a larger community of learners grow and teachers feel successful. Rogers describes it as “going behind the curtain” to see how the education show works. Edman talks about “seeing more of the bigger picture.”

“I can get up and start to think about my day and all the things I need to do and how we’re going to address things, and then, the first student comes up to me and says, ‘Mrs. Edman’, and it all goes away,” Edman said. “Then I realize again, this is why I do what I do.”

Personal lives

Edman and Rogers both grew up in Carthage and actually rubbed shoulders early on.

When Edman was in high school, she taught a preschool and kindergarten swimming class. Rogers was one of her little swimmers.

The two joke back and forth about the differences in their ages and how they came to their first principalships at the same time by seeming coincidence.

“I knew you when you were little,” Edman said, teasing Rogers.

Edman is married to her husband, Rob, of 27 years. They have two children, Elise, 23, and Ethan, 21, both students at Missouri Southern State University.

Edman has a bachelor’s degree in art education from Missouri Southern State University, a master’s degree in art education from Pittsburg (Kan.) State University and a specialist degree in educational leadership from PSU.

In her free time, Edman is working on her doctorate in education, is an early morning regular at the YMCA and still makes time every once in awhile to make art.

Rogers is married to his wife, Allison, of 10 years. They have two children, Benjamin, 3, and Emerson, 2.

He said most of his time is taken up with his two young children, but he also enjoys working in his yard.

In addition to his bachelor’s degree from MU, Rogers also has a master’s degree in educational leadership from William Woods University and is working toward a specialist degree in educational leadership from Missouri State University in Springfield.



By the numbers

Cecil Floyd:

• 620 students.

• 95 percent attendance.

• 57 percent eligible for Free or Reduced Price Lunch.

• About 90 staff.

Stapleton

• 470 students.

• 95 percent attendance.

• 40 percent eligible for Free or Reduced Price Lunch.

• About 55 staff.