Mary Belle McCorkle Academy of Excellence

What started as a parent volunteer position the year that Mary Belle McCorkle Academy of Excellence PreK-8 School has now morphed into a 10-year career at the southwest school for Jamie. And she’s loved being able to work in the school library for the last decade. 

One of Jamie’s favorite aspects of working in McCorkle’s library is that she gets to work with students of all grade levels at the school. She feels like she is able to make a bigger impact by working with all classes. 

“I [love] how much of a community we are,” Jamie said. “So, when we have community events, like our fall festivals, basically our whole school is involved. But one of my favorite things to do is running our book fairs because the kids just get so excited to come in and shop.” 

Rosalba is one of the handful of employees at Mary Belle McCorkle Academy of Excellence who started at the same time the school was created, back in 2011. At the start of the inaugural school year, all the current facilities weren’t even finished. There were just three buildings fully completed on campus when classes first started at the southwest school. 

Since then, one of Rosalba’s favorite experiences throughout her tenure at McCorkle has been how collaborative the staff is. 

“It was a beautiful experience to inaugurate the school,” Rosalba said. “…It was nice because we were able to establish the culture. We were able to meet the families and, with the teachers, we were able to start forming what is now our school little by little.”

Amaris transferred to Mary Belle McCorkle Academy of Excellence PreK-8 as a 7th grader. But in that short time, she has already become a star student. The middle schooler loves the community feel of the campus and particularly likes being able to help out the elementary-aged students.  

“I actually really like this school,” Amaris said. “It’s really more advanced than my other [schools] and there’s things that I’ve never seen here. And honestly, I very much like the people here.” 

Amaris has served as the basketball manager and socializes with a lot of the staff, which leads them to know who she is and, in turn, Amaris has become someone the staff can depend on. 

“I just feel very happy to be that person,” Amaris said.