Lauren Strickland has flourished since being named Johnston County Public Schools (JCPS) 2025-2026 Assistant Principal of the Year in August of 2025. A 21-year veteran educator, former Pine Level Elementary School and Polenta Elementary Assistant Principal, Strickland began her teaching career with the Alamance-Burlington School System (ABSS) after graduating from Elon University, where she was a North Carolina Teaching Fellows recipient.
Coming home
After three years with ABSS, she returned home to her beloved Johnston County, where she served as a classroom teacher and curriculum coach at Four Oaks Elementary for the next 14 years. During that time, Strickland continued her education, earning a Master of Science in Education from North Carolina State University and a Master of Science in School Administration from Campbell University.
Since joining JCPS, Strickland has had other noteworthy accomplishments, including being named a 2011 Flame for Learning Award finalist. In 2017, Strickland received the Burroughs Wellcome Career Award for Math and Science Teachers. The Burroughs Wellcome award is a five-year, $175,000 grant for JCPS for professional development. “I’ve been blessed throughout my career to have a lot of wonderful opportunities afforded to me, and lots of people who have poured into me,” Strickland stated.
Another step Forward
Once she completed her master’s studies, Strickland was chosen as the assistant principal at Pine Level Elementary, where she served for three years. Those years enabled her to develop her core principles and implement initiatives to advance student success.
One of those initiatives that Strickland, the school administration, and staff focused on was classroom management techniques and positive behavior supports to keep students in the classroom. “I’m a firm believer that students can’t learn if they aren’t in the classroom,” she said. The process began with a deep dive into data analysis, pinpointing their own strengths and weaknesses, and collaborating as a team to determine how they could improve together and focus on goal setting.
"We can only be better together."
-Lauren Strickland
During the process, they learned that behavior and discipline are forms of communication, which confirmed that building positive relationships is the key to understanding what the students are trying to say. Through that initiative, discipline referral numbers at Pine Level Elementary drastically decreased when these strategies were implemented. “We know that all students can do great things if we set high expectations and believe in them and remind them to believe in themselves,” she said.
Each day, Strickland is reminded of her purpose in various ways, including seeing a shy or nonverbal student interacting with another student, seeing staff celebrating successes and sharing their best practices, and when students reach a goal they set for themselves. “Some of my best days are when a student says, ‘I haven’t gotten there yet, but I’m going to keep working on it,’” Strickland commented.
Her "why"
Being named the JCPS 2025-2026 Assistant Principal of the Year for Strickland is a personal acknowledgement that she is fulfilling her purpose that began with a defining moment in high school. One day, she and her now husband went to see his mother, a long-time educator, in her kindergarten classroom at Pine Level Elementary.
Strickland had not been in an elementary school since she was a student herself, but that moment changed everything. “When I stepped foot into that classroom and was back in that environment, something clicked,” she said. “I knew that being an educator was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.”
Her educational journey led her from Pine Level Elementary to Polenta Elementary, where she improved her leadership skills and bettered the students and staff where she served as an Assistant Principal. She attributes her success to the many great mentors she has been privileged to work with. The award is also a professional acknowledgement of all the great leaders who poured into her, and it will serve as a reminder to pour into students and staff, just as others have done for her.
Stepping into a new role
Srickland’s leadership and professionalism have been significant in the district’s recent success. Recognized for her excellence, Strickland has recently taken another step and has been appointed principal of Glendale-Kenly Elementary. This was a process that some would say was destined to happen.
Since becoming principal at Glendale-Kenly Elementary, Strickland has applied the same core principles, including getting to know students as individuals and building positive relationships with them and their families.
Those same principles extend to all staff members, including those who work behind the scenes, such as the custodians and school nutrition staff. ”The school is not just the building, school is really the people. We can only be better together,” she stated.
Strickland motivates and inspires teachers to deliver high-quality instruction through coaching conversations and feedback. She emphasizes that the successes teachers are having in their classrooms will help them grow and reach their goals, too.
“To achieve the success that Glendale-Kenly Elementary is striving for, we must bring our individual strengths together and draw on those; we’re going to be able to do great things,” she said.