American Education Week is November 13-19, 2022. This week, Charles County Public Schools (CCPS) recognizes the hard work and dedication of all workers in the school system that especially contribute to the success of CCPS students. Day three of American Education Week is Education Support Professionals Day, according to the National Education Association (NEA). On this day all support professionals who make a difference in the lives of CCPS students are celebrated.
Connie Jerman-Webb is the longest-standing instructional assistant (IA) at Gale-Bailey Elementary School, starting her career in 1998 as a substitute teacher. She then moved to be a food service worker and eventually accepted the position as one of the school’s IAs.
Webb originally wanted to be a nurse, then became an automobile painter. She made a switch in her career, she loves kids with two of her own and two grandchildren.
“My father passed, I had just moved down here, I had no childcare and needed a job,” Webb said. She was new to the county and was looking for a job but was not expecting to work for the school system. One day when she was picking up her child from school, the school staff asked her if she had considered working for CCPS. “They told me to go to the Board, get fingerprinted and fill out the applications and come back,” Webb said.
Being an IA at the school is not her only role. “She is everywhere all the time,” Tangela Scales, principal at the school, said. “We just had an event in October, and she decorated the entire cafeteria.” Webb also assists with bus duty in the mornings, she is in charge of the Green Club grant and the Just Say No Club both at the school. She is also known to lead guiding reading groups and covers classes when needed. “She is always helpful, she will always be there when you need her,” Scales said.
Webb attributes her success in working for the school system to the children and the community. “I still see them constantly, now I have some of their kids,” Webb said. “I see the little ones in the bellies of their moms and see them all the way through fifth grade.”
Webb is one of the many education support professionals who makes it possible to maintain our mission, to support the well-being of children.
About CCPS
Charles County Public Schools provides 27,000 students in grades prekindergarten through 12 with an academically challenging education. Located in Southern Maryland, Charles County Public Schools has 37 schools that offer a technologically advanced, progressive and high quality education that builds character, equips for leadership and prepares students for life, careers and higher education.
The Charles County public school system does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age or disability in its programs, activities or employment practices. For inquiries, please contact Kathy Kiessling, Title IX/ADA/Section 504 Coordinator (students) or Nikial M. Majors, Title IX/ADA/Section 504 Coordinator (employees/ adults), at Charles County Public Schools, Jesse L. Starkey Administration Building, P.O. Box 2770, La Plata, MD 20646; 301-932-6610/301-870-3814. For special accommodations call 301-934-7230 or TDD 1-800-735-2258 two weeks prior to the event.
CCPS provides nondiscriminatory equal access to school facilities in accordance with its Use of Facilities rules to designated youth groups (including, but not limited to, the Boy Scouts).