Dear Future Parents of Chatham Grove Elementary School,
I was excited to be named Principal of Chatham Grove Elementary School and began officially on January 6th after being named by our Chatham County School Board on December 9th, 2019. As I continue to prepare for our August opening, I wanted to share a little about myself.
Education is not only my passion, but it’s in my blood as well. My mom was a kindergarten teacher and my father was a math professor at NC State. I became interested in working in education during my 10 years driving a school bus during high school and college. I have an undergraduate degree in History with a minor in Economics from NC State. I earned my master’s degree in English as a Second Language (ESL) from UNC Charlotte in 1995. Shortly thereafter, I moved to the Czech Republic to teach at a university in a town called Opava where I married my wife (Zora). We have two children (my daughter is a senior at UNC Chapel Hill, and my son works in Washington D.C).
Upon returning to the U.S. in 1996, I taught ESL for 12 years before moving to a district-level administrative position with Wake County Public Schools in 2010. I served as Wake’s ESL Director. During this time, I also earned a Doctorate in Educational Leadership from UNC Chapel Hill. I had always dreamed of being a principal, however, so I decided in 2012 to move into an assistant principal position at Olive Chapel Elementary School in Wake County.
In 2014, I was honored to be named principal at Siler City Elementary School (SCE) where I served until this January. During my time at Siler City ES, we improved our End of Grade (EOG) scores significantly. We also exceeded expected student academic growth 3 years in a row. At the conclusion of the 2018-19 school year, SCE ranked in the top 6% of all North Carolina schools in terms of growth. Overall, with a fantastic faculty dedicated to working tirelessly for students and staff, we created a school environment where our students excelled both academically and social-emotionally.
Now, I have the most exciting opportunity to help build a school ‘from the ground up.’ The focus of our school will be to create an exceptionally safe learning environment where we emphasize maximum academic and social-emotional growth for each of your children. I want nothing less than for Chatham Grove to be recognized as one of the most outstanding schools in North Carolina. Our students, staff, and families deserve nothing less. As a school community, we will work together to ensure that this is the case.
I will be sharing further information and updates in the coming months. In the meantime, please continue to check our District website (https://www.chatham.k12.nc.us/Page/22478) for pictures of construction progress or for other general information.
I look forward to working with each of you as we continue to ensure the best possible academic outcomes for your child. We have an exciting 8 months before us.
Sincerely,
Dr. Larry Savage
Principal, Chatham Grove Elementary School
