Former student will soon serve as principal of elementary school

GOSNELL, Ark. (KAIT) - Some people are lucky enough to go back to their hometowns and impact the community that helped raise them. One woman in the Gosnell community is doing just that.

She’s had an interesting journey to her current career, but it lands her in the same building she once walked around as a young girl.

Teachers and educators have such a great impact on a community. The current Gosnell Elementary School assistant principal, Tina Godsey, has impacted the school district in Gosnell for 23 years.

Her run within the district began way before then, bleeding blue and gold since before Godsey can even remember.

“I say all the time I really bleed blue and gold and that is true,” she said.

She attended Gosnell schools from kindergarten until she graduated high school.

“I had a fifth-grade teacher that took me in. She would let me stay after school because she knew my mom worked two jobs and helped her with things,” she said.

She even played sports during her time in school.

“My first coach saw me at our Gosnell park, saw me playing basketball and I never thought about playing,” said Godsey.

Education played a huge role in Godsey’s life. Her parents made sure she would go further than they did in their education.

“My mother did not graduate high school my father could not read and write,” she explained.

Godsey left Gosnell to get an education degree but returned and started in the district as a math assistant and taught special education. Over the years she taught other subjects and now she is one of the assistant principals at the elementary school.

The Gosnell School Board recently voted to hire her as the new elementary school principal.

“I am excited, I am excited to go on this new journey and to lead them,” said Godsey.

I asked Godsey if she ever thought she would be the principal of her elementary school when she was younger.

“I never really probably thought that,” she said. “I was probably always kind of scared of the principals. I was afraid when I was younger.”

Although her journey is different than what she imagined her history with the district helps bring something special to her new position.

“I know where some of our kids come from with working parents and some who have lost their parents, I know how all of that feels and I want to give back to them,” she said.

Godsey will start as principal for the 2023-2024 school year.

She said one of her main goals is to involve parents more and instill pirate pride within the students.

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