BELLE — Belle High School (BHS) Principal Lea Hickerson submitted her resignation to the Maries County R-2 Board of Education on March 26, officially moving on from her first administrative post to pursue a career at Missouri S&T in Rolla.

“I definitely learned something here,” Hickerson said about the three years she has spent at BHS. “It was my first administrative rule and it was a steep learning curve. I learned how to bridge the gap between teachers and students, how to support both and always come back to what is best for kids.”

During her years learning to be an administrator, she said she was fortunate to have teacher support and help from BHS councilor Chris Feeler.

“It was a really good time and was not an easy decision to leave,” Hickerson said. “I am sad to leave the kids for sure.”

Hickerson said she thought she would have more time with the students before leaving, but due to the coronavirus and early school closures, the closest she has been to students recently was a Zoom meeting two weeks ago to discuss how they would like to proceed with their graduation ceremony.

“Seeing them on Zoom made me sad,” she said. “I won’t be with them, and I will miss my teachers. It really is a relationship and in an administrative role, I have put a lot into that.”

The position at Missouri S&T was a happy accident. Hickerson said she saw an advertisement for the position and thought “why not take a shot?”

“But an offer came up and I had to decide what I wanted to do,” she said. “My choice to leave was not because it was negative where I was, but because the offer was from a university, which is a long-term goal.”

She said it was “one of those moments where she didn’t want to let the opportunity pass by.”

Before her administrative career, Hickerson had six years of experience teaching English to sophomores and seniors in the Rolla school district and taught one year before that at Springfield Catholic. Her new role will be working with students to complete their masters degrees or dissertations in the doctorate programs.

“I taught English before and supported kids writing their dissertations,” she said, adding her new role will include flexible teaching styles. “I am doing some writing seminars, not a definitive class, and open office hours to work through dissertations. It’s bringing the English back into play with writing workshops and helping students through that process. Coordinating and helping with the process.”

Hickerson said the projects she will be working on with university students will be complicated.

“They go into those programs and don’t see all the pieces that come into play,” she said. “S&T has students that are ESL (English as a second language). It will be interesting to be working with those students as well and working on a variety of things.”

Being in this “limbo” though was not how she had planned to leave.

“I am not seeing (my students) and it has been extra hard to not have the last spring things with them. It’s been really tough,” she said. “I am really committed to these kids and my staff and I do love them.”

She added that the situation is much like when she decided to become an administrator after teaching. She was sad to leave her students behind.

“I am really glad Belle gave me the opportunity in doing the administrative role,” she said.

Hickerson’s contract is scheduled to end June 1.