After more than 30 years as an educator, 10 of which she served as the principal of the Althea Scatliffe Primary School (ASPS), Mrs Marieta C. Flax-Headley is retiring. Photo: Facebook

Mrs Marieta C. Flax-Headley, right, accepts Mighty Commendation from the Althea Scatliffe Primary School (ASPS) on Thursday, July 23, 2020. Photo: Facebook

In 2015, Marieta C. Flax-Headley won a second consecutive Principal of the Year, which was just a highlight of her successful tenure at the helm at Althea Scatliffe Primary School (ASPS), which had also won School of the Year. Photo: VINO/File

“It has been a great ride. It has been an awesome 34 years. I did it because I cared,” she said on Thursday July 23, 2020, at the school while accepting the Mighty Commendation from the school.

In 2015, Flax-Headley won a second consecutive Principal of the Year, which was just a highlight of her successful tenure at the helm at ASPS, which had also won School of the Year.

“There have been highs, and there have been lows, but I will focus only on the highs,” Mrs Flax-Headley stated.

Award

The Mighty Commendation is the highest award bestowed on every principal who served at the school.

“We have given it to every principal who have served at this school, and whether they are dead or alive, we have given it in their honour. We make history by presenting the mighty commendation to Mrs Headley today as the only sitting principal to ever receive this award,” spokesperson Kareem Nelson Hull said during the brief ceremony before handing over the microphone to graduate Tyesia Cameron.

Cameron had some kind words for the outgoing principal.

She said: “Principal Marieta Celicia Flax-Headley’s 10 years as the leader of our mighty army of students, faculty and staff comes to a semi-end today. We say semi-end, because no one who has toiled in our halls, no one who has ever worn or worked for the pink and maroon, no one who has ever felt the taste of victory at the annual Inter-School Sports Day, no one, I repeat, no one who has ever called and responded to our school’s chant, ‘Everywhere we go”, can truly retire from our school.”

Legacy, inspiration & standards.

“Mighty isn’t a thing that you want to be. Mighty is something that you come to be once you learn here or work here, so mighty will always be a part of you and no matter where you go, as you go higher, and you run faster, and even when you decide to move a little slower, you are still carrying the name of our mighty school wherever you go.”

She said despite retiring, there are a few things that cannot retire with Flax-Headley such as her legacy, inspiration and standards.

“So today we are here to say thank you all of those things, but most of all we want to say thank you for you, for giving of yourself as a teacher for years, thank you. For being a lawyer, doctor, Indian and chief, thank you. For going above the call of duty, thank you. For making us as mighty as you are, thank you. It’s often said that teachers and maybe principals don’t make much money, but what you did make while you were here, was a difference. Yes, your presence made a difference!” Cameron added.