Palatka High alum eager about 1st year as principal
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BRANDON D. OLIVER/Palatka Daily News -- Palatka Junior-Senior High School Principal Cathy Oyster, center, stands with her assistant principals, from left, Lamar Purifoy, Joy Eubanks, Cindy Bellamy and Michael Chaires on Friday as they show their Panther spirit before school begins Aug. 10.
Palatka Junior-Senior High School’s new principal has set lofty goals as she and her staff prepare for the 2023-2024 academic year.
Students will return to class Aug. 10, but Cathy Oyster has been preparing for the new school year since before the previous school year ended.
Oyster, the former assistant principal of Kelley Smith Elementary School in Palatka, had been shadowing her Palatka High predecessor, J.T. Stout, since March. With classes set to begin in less than a week, her excitement cannot be contained.
“Every single thing,” Oyster said when asked what she looks forward to the most. “I am ready to get the year started. … I was very blessed to have the opportunity to start here a few months before school let out.”
Thanks to that “head start,” Oyster said, she has made plans, which include bringing back the school’s homecoming parade, having more school dances and reviving the Panther Prowl, a community-wide pep rally that decades ago took place at Veterans Memorial Stadium.
Oyster, a 1999 graduate of Palatka High, said those and other plans were thought up to fulfill a larger goal: getting the community reinvested in the school. Many people in Palatka either attended or know someone who attended Palatka High, she said, so she and her staff are committed to making the school a community hub.
“There’s a lot of anticipation for change,” Oyster said. “We want to bring back and we will be bringing back traditions that have went away.”
Something new the school is doing is giving out the Dr. Michelle Tucker Award in Educational Excellence, named in honor of the 22-year Putnam County School District employee who died last month after a battle with leukemia.
The award honors teachers who exhibit a commitment to their students and a passion for education, qualities Oyster said Tucker – who worked as a teacher and math coach before becoming the assistant principal of Palatka High and later Crescent City Junior-Senior High School – exhibited throughout her career. Teacher Sharon Harris was recently named the award’s first recipient.
“There are a lot of great people that have gone through this school, so we just want to recognize them,” Oyster said, mentioning Tucker and Harris.
Joy Eubanks, one of Palatka High’s assistant principals, shares Oyster’s excitement about the new school year. Teachers returned to class Thursday, and Eubanks is eagerly awaiting students filling the halls and classrooms.
“I’m super excited to be back and get the year rolling,” she said. “I’m super excited to be back here at my alma mater.”
Eubanks, like her principal and the other three assistant principals, graduated from Palatka High, which, she said, adds to the desire to get the community more involved.
This is Eubanks’ second year at Palatka High and 24th year in education. And every year, she said, she looks forward to the first day of classes, especially this year when her daughter will be a freshman.
“The kids being excited, the kids being excited,” she said. “The first day is always exciting.”
Superintendent Rick Surrency said he is looking forward to good things happening at Palatka High this school year. Having visited the school Thursday, Surrency said he knows Oyster will use her “wealth of experience” to do a great job in her first year as a principal.
“I can’t say enough good things about her,” Surrency said. “She brings a lot of creative ideas and positivity. I think it’s going to be a great year at Palatka Junior-Senior High School under her leadership.”
