"The goal is not to live forever, the goal is to create something that will."
Congratulations to Ms. Danielle Price, the new Principal of Lift For Life Academy Elementary, effective July 1, 2024.
Ms. Price has had a unique pathway to principalship. She started with Lift For Life Academy in 2017 and served as a paraprofessional after a career change to follow her passion. She quickly matriculated into the role of a teacher fellow, worked on her teaching certification and became the middle school 8th grade teacher the following year. In that year alone, she was elected as the Lift For Life Academy’s Rookie Teacher of the year, the Academy Teacher of the Year and became the recipient of The Bogard’s Humanities Teacher of the Year.
In August 2019, LFLA opened its doors to the brand new elementary school and Danielle became a founding Kindergarten teacher and made a massive impact in the lives of her youngsters. Covid hit us before the end of the year but it did not stop Ms. Price. She continued to have virtual school with her students, made visits to their homes, attended their personal functions and kept them involved daily to ensure that they were not losing ground academically. No surprise, in 2020, Danielle received the Elementary Teacher of the Year.
In 2021, she became the 2nd grade teacher to the same students and strengthened the relationships and academics even more. The efforts in 2021 led her to be recognized by the Association of American Educators for her dedication to education in the Charter Schools.
In 2022, Ms. Price was promoted to the Director of Curriculum and Instruction. Under her leadership, the instructional coaching staff was elevated, a new curriculum was incorporated and implemented and the overall support for teachers’ growth and development enhanced greatly. She was responsible for designing and presenting professional developments for educators, coaching over 25 teachers a year using the Get Better Faster model with the focus of rigorous lesson plans and culturally responsive classroom management tools and analyzing student achievement data from NWEA and MAP to make curriculum adaptations based on student need.
Earlier this school year, LFLA had a teacher to leave in the middle of the year and Danielle Price volunteered to teach 4th grade(her same students from KG and 2nd) until the end of the year because she did not want to see them fall short in any capacity. This demonstrates her flexibility, her ability to be indefatigable and her pure effectiveness to the education field.
She holds a Master of Educational Leadership from SIUE and a Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology and Exercise Science from the UNC at Chapel Hill. The love of her life is her 6 year old daughter Dakota Price.
The Board of Directors, Executive Director and Deputy Director are excited for the staff, students, parents and community to be a part of the future endeavors of the new direction and progression of the elementary school.