photo by Stefan Rogenmoser

From left: business leaders Bradley Davis and Clarence Wright get a look at the lunch menu as Ashley Ridge High School Principal Karen Radcliffe explains their options on Principal For A Day on Thursday.

photo by Stefan Rogenmoser

Back to school: Business leaders Bradley Davis and Clarence Wright glance at Ray Bradbury’s “Fahrenheit 451” in Erin Kestler’s English class as ARHS Principal Karen Radcliffe takes them on a tour.

photo by Stefan Rogenmoser

Bradley Davis, Clarence Wright and Principal Karen Radcliffe talk education at a hallway intersection.

The Education Foundation’s annual Principal For A Day Program has gotten so popular that every public school in Dorchester, Berkeley and Charleston counties have at least one guest from the business world.

Some schools even had two guests, such as Ashley Ridge High School in Dorchester District 2. South Carolina Electric & Gas Lowcountry District Manager Clarence Wright and Rick Hendrick Imports VP and General Manager Bradley Davis were the guests of ARHS Principal Karen Radcliffe. Both men live in the neighborhood.

Radcliffe showed them the range of tasks a principal faces on daily basis: from visiting classrooms, meeting with assistant principals, going through piles of paperwork, remembering to eat lunch (Radcliffe loves cereal) on a busy day and handling everyday crises before they get out of hand. Both men seemed impressed at the way public schools have advanced since the days they attended school.

Davis is on the Education Foundation’s board and is a past chairman. He has participated in every Principal For a Day program since it started seven years ago in 2003.

Wright has participated in two previous PFD programs at Gregg Middle and Beech Hill Elementary. He said each experience has been drastically different in what the principals do.

“All have a great love for the students,” Wright said. “They all seem to know almost all of the kids by name, or their parents. That’s 600 to 700 kids . . . They’ve had an opportunity to build a deeper degree of knowledge for the students.”

“The school is well-organized,” Davis said. “The kids are focused. It’s neat to see the expansion and how it’s going.

“The principal is the CEO of an organization. Business is easy. This is a difficult operation.”

Davis has also been a PFD at Berkeley County’s Cane Bay High School which, like ARHS, opened in 2008. Davis said both schools have a lot to offer students and the ARHS layout is better.

The two guests sat in on a meeting and watched Radcliffe and assistant principal Mona Caudle go through a stack of papers accounting for all middle school students that didn’t make it to ARHS as well as students who have moved or transferred.

Davis joked that he would hire Radcliffe to work for him if she didn’t already have a job. Davis said it’s good for business people to see what goes on in a school. “Ninety-nine percent of the time it runs like clockwork.”

“It’s the little victories in the day that make it,” Radcliffe said. “I love it. Any time we bring the community into the school it’s great.”

“This school feels like it’s been here a while,” Davis said. “They’ve got their act together. It’s a ball of energy. It radiates through the rest of the staff.”

“We learn a lot about the incredible scope and complexity of what they deal with,” Wright said. “They come down the pipeline to us. We want them to be the best they can be.”

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