This week, Dr. Karen Doty is keeping 10 red and yellow roses in a vase at her office at Portal Middle High School. She took the other 40 roses home.

Officially, Doty’s retirement after 28 years as a Bulloch County educator, and 31 total years in teaching and school administration, takes effect June 30. But this year’s 50 Portal High School graduates said farewell with roses during Saturday’s commencement at Hanner Fieldhouse.

Doty was principal of the grades 6-12 school in Portal only two years, but leaves with fond feelings for the place. Like the other places where she has served – Langston Chapel, Nevils, and the former Marvin Pittman Laboratory School – Portal is not quite in the center of things, but has its own identity and success stories.

“I’m always for the underdog,” Doty said, sitting beside those roses. “I kind of gravitate toward people who struggle.”

Originally from Lexington, Ky., Doty graduated from the University of Kentucky with a bachelor’s degree in elementary and special education and came to Georgia in December 1983 to apply for teaching jobs in the Macon area. At that time, she recalls, Georgia was promising substantial raises over the next two years to attract teachers.

She taught special education one year in a middle school and then eighth grade math for one year. After two years in Bibb County, she relocated to Effingham County, where for one year she taught seventh- and eighth-graders in a program for those who had trouble reading and doing basic math.

At the lab school

Then she was hired to teach at Marvin Pittman Laboratory School by then-Principal Johnny Tremble. The Bulloch County school system operated the school, which served as a laboratory for teaching techniques, in the heart of the Georgia Southern University campus.

“We not only taught public school students but we worked with the professors at Georgia Southern to do research, and we had college students in our classrooms every day,” Doty said. “So it was kind of a training ground for upcoming teachers. It was an awesome experience.”

Doty also became a Georgia Southern graduate student, attaining her master’s in middle grades education, her specialist’s degree in educational leadership, and a doctorate in curriculum and leadership.

When the Bulloch County Board of Education moved to eliminate the lab school and build replacement schools outside the university campus, Doty argued for keeping it open.

“I was one of the ones at every school board meeting trying to convince them not to close the school, but it ended up closing in 1998, and at that time I decided I would try administration,” she said.

Her first administrative job was as an assistant principal at Nevils Elementary School, when Jimmy Parrish was principal. After three years as assistant, Doty led the Nevils school for three years as principal.

“And that’s a great little community too,” Doty said this week.

Langston Chapel

Next came her longest tenure. For 10 years, Doty was principal of Langston Chapel Elementary School, one of the schools that had replaced Marvin Pittman.

Her memories of Langston Chapel Elementary prompted Doty’s comment about “the underdog.” When she was principal, about 90 percent of LCES students qualified for free or reduced-price lunch, Doty said. Langston Chapel’s attendance zone gives it a diverse student body, including children from immigrant families.

“So at Langston, you know, it’s very multicultural; it’s a very needy area,” Doty said. “I got to learn a lot about different cultures from different nationalities of students who go there. So I just really enjoyed my time there.”

While she was principal, Langston Chapel expanded its English for Speakers of Other Languages instruction. In partnership with the Bulloch County Commission on Human Services, the school also began offering grant-funded after-school and summer programs.

Two years ago, Bulloch County’s superintendent of schools asked Doty to trade places with Dr. Shawn Harrelson, who was then principal of Portal Middle High School.

“I thought it would be a lot of fun to see kids at the end of their school careers, so I looked forward to that,” Doty said. “It was hard leaving a school where you’ve been there that long, but I’m always up for a challenge.”

Portal finale

Although Bulloch County’s smallest middle or high school in grade-by-grade enrollment, the Portal school hasn’t been acting so much like an underdog. In 2014-15, Doty’s first year as principal, the school had the highest scores of Bulloch County’s high schools and the second highest among its middle schools on the College and Career Ready Performance Index.

In speaking to the Board of Education last month, Doty said the school had demonstrated success with her and Assistant Principal Penny Oglesby as its leaders the past two years. Oglesby served as acting principal for four months last year when Doty took extended leave and went to Kentucky to spend time with her mother, returning only after her mother died in late October.

As Doty retires, a new $1 million athletic fieldhouse is under construction on the back of Portal Middle High School.

“We were able to work with the system-wide facilities committee and that is now scheduled to be open August 1,” she said. “So we’re excited because the community and the kids definitely need and will benefit from that.”

Also this year, the school achieved what Doty said was its first-ever state athletic championship. The girls’ golf team took the Georgia High School Association Class A title.

Doty believes that stability is important to both principals and students and would have liked to stay more than two years at the Portal school, she said.

“It is kind of a short time, and it’s not really enough time,” she said. “If my children lived here in Bulloch County, I’d stay, but we’ve accomplished a lot of things.”

Her sons, Morgan and Trent, are both grown now and live in the Atlanta area, and Doty just found a house there. Retiring at age 54, she plans to find new work, possibly teaching at a university or working for an educational agency but “hopefully a low stress job,” not like being an administrator, she said.

Last week, Superintendent Charles Wilson reassigned Patrick Hill, previously principal of Mill Creek Elementary School, to take over as principal of Portal Middle High upon Doty’s retirement.

“I respect Dr. Doty and understand her decision to retire,” Wilson said. “She has stepped up into different roles in this district as requested. We appreciate her service and all she has given to the community and just wish her well.”

Looking past those roses, Doty said, “I just appreciate the time that I’ve had here in Bulloch County and all the people I’ve worked with and the people I’ve worked for. It’s been a great ride.”

Herald reporter Al Hackle may be reached at (912) 489-9458.