Riverside’s Eric Williams was honored Friday night in Greenville as the South Carolina Middle School Principal of the Year selected by the South Carolina Parents Teachers Association (SC PTA).
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Andy Crowley, center, Riverside High School Principal, was awarded the High School Principal of the Year selected by the SC PTA.
Andy Crowley, principal at Riverside High School, and Eric Williams, principal at Riverside Middle School received their awards at the Greenville Regency Hotel.
Former Secretary of Education and South Carolina Richard W. Riley presented the awards at the annual banquet.
The award is bittersweet for Riverside Middle School, as Williams has been selected to become principal at Wade Hampton High School for the 2014-2015 school year. Williams was nominated for the South Carolina Teacher of the Year 2012-2013.
“The award represents a great relationship with the PTA,” Williams said Thursday at the school’s Community Spirit Night. “I was surprised and it was unexpected. There are a lot of great middle school principals.”
“He’s a phenomenal leader, very approachable and the kids love him and he loves the kids,” said Brooke Howard, school counselor/career specialist at RMS. “He is very supportive of the teachers.”
Williams said leadership reflects “Strength is in our numbers with the community, staff, teachers, PTA . . . our teachers share ideas and create a culture for that.”
“Eric is an awesome person to work with,” said Andrew Norton, Pastor of Youth and Administration at Community Baptist Church. Children are bused from RMS to the church on S. Suber Road for after school youth ministry one day a week.
Williams has been principal at Riverside since the 2011-2012 school year. He was assistant principal at Riverside High School for five years, previously administrative assistant at Greer Middle School and taught at Enoree Career and Technology Center for three years.