Abigail Cooksey took over as Dean of Students at Salida High School this school year beginning on July 27th. 

One of her duties is taking care of the gifted education program. She is responsible for coordinating all student testing. This includes all College Board tests like AP exams and SAT. NWEA maps testing also falls under her jurisdiction. She is also in charge of general discipline, grades, and attendance. 

Cooksey has been interested in the way the education system works since she was a kid and has been working in education for the past seven years. Cooksey cares a lot about the systems of the school and how to make them run smoothly for both teachers and students. She shared that as a child she would think about the way that Hogwarts would run as a school.

Cooksey said, “I spent a lot of time trying to figure out the master schedule for Hogwarts, like when did Gryffindor go to potions with Slytherin. Was it like a Tuesday-Thursday thing? How did they decide what houses would go to classes at the same time together? What was the schedule?” 

Cooksey expanded on a few differences between her position as a teacher and as a dean. She feels that as dean she can be less alert to a large group of students. She went on to say that she does have less time to unwind and turn off as the Dean of Students. She now has more individual duties that all have to be completed rather than having responsibilities that all tie together.

“In this position, I don’t have to be as aware of every single personal quirk of 26 students, but I do have to be aware of the few people in front of me,” Cooksey said.

Learning and growing are fundamental to Cooksey. Learning all the new ways to help has been very rewarding for her. She is learning how to better communicate with students, parents and teachers, and she is learning how the school interacts with other community services. Most importantly, she is learning how to be a better leader.