There’s a new body in the top administrator’s chair at Loyd StarAttendance Center this year, but she sports a familiar face.

Campus Principal Robin M. Case knows every student, teacher andparent in her home area and school. She grew up in the community,is a Loyd Star graduate and has served as an educator and assistantprincipal there. Singing in the choir and teaching Sunday school atnearby Macedonia Baptist Church has also endeared her to thecommunity, the members of which address her as “Mrs. Robin” and”Mama Case.”

And with no name, face or event going unnoticed to her, Case isrunning the county’s largest school flawlessly one week into the2008-09 school year.

“We have had a great week,” she said. “With 1,000 studentsstarting school, the potential for problems lies there, but wehaven’t had anything outside the normal glitches.”

For Case, running Loyd Star is a challenge welcomed.

The principal’s office is not just another administrative job,and she said it is not just a stepping stone to a higher office.The school is her baby.

“I think it helps that I live in this community – I have avested interest in this school,” she said. “I’ve given everyone oncampus my home number and my cell number, and I want to know what’sgoing on with my kids.”

Having worked as an assistant principal at Loyd Star ElementarySchool over the past five years has given Case all the knowledgeand preparation she needs to be the campus principal, and she haseased into her duties without having to rewrite the principal’sbook.

Case said her administration will bring one change to thecampus, however, and it’s one that the faculty, and especially thestudents, are quite familiar with.

She will not hesitate to lay down the law.

“I’m probably a little stricter – maybe that’s just the old momcoming out of me,” Case said. “You have to have discipline, beconsistent in everything and then education can take place.”

Case has an administrative history of telling it like it isthat, among some students, earned her the loving nickname “Hitler.”She can recount many stories about striking down a wayward studentwith a sharp stare that usually produces the desired results andturns said student’s face a clean shade of white.

But it’s not discipline for the sake of discipline, it’s toughlove, and the parents and students appreciate it.

“From the feedback I’ve gotten, about 95 percent of peopleappreciate what we’re doing and know we’re doing it to take care oftheir children,” Case said. “You can ask any of my students, andthey’ll tell you that I am strict but I am fair to everyone.”

Case uses her disciplinary legacy to project order onto theschool. She believes it’s important for students to see leadershipin the halls and not just hear it on the intercom, and she makesherself visible around the halls and sidewalks.

And Case does such a good job of projection, sometimes she can’tturn it off.

“I had a father share with me recently that while they werevisiting church, his daughter saw me sitting in the choir and gotreal stiff,” she said. “Her father told her, ‘There’s the principal- she’s watching you.”

Aside from maintaining order at Loyd Star, Case said one hermain functions was that of problem solver, a skill engrained in herfrom years of teaching science. Although some call it “bossing,”she said problem solving was her gift from God, and she uses itfrequently.

Case has used her school to make a few modifications on campus.She has changed the school’s parent pick-up route, moving theboarding points to the rear of campus for safety reasons. She isoverseeing the revamping of the school’s Three Tier Model/TeacherSupport Team – an academic intervention squad designed to interveneand tutor any student struggling with grades – which requires somerebuilding after the retirement of a few member teachers.

In order to bring the school’s 64-member faculty closertogether, Case has also reintroduced the open assembly at theannual open house, where she introduced the faculty to parents andstudents one by one.

“It’s a little complicated with the campus being spread out – itfeels like two campuses,” she said. “I’m committed to drawing thecampus closer together. Being spread out this far, we may havekindergarten and high school teachers who don’t know eachother.”

Case is also molding the faculty to fit her brand ofeducation.

“We’ve had about eight staff changes this year, which isprobably a little more than average,” she said. “But with a newteacher, they’re going to be trained your way. Anytime you have newpersonnel coming in, it’s a good starting place to train people theway you want things done and build similar goals andexpectations.”

Case said her intentions for Loyd Star are simple – constantimprovement. She said the school already offers “excellent”academic programs, and her goal is to continually expand them.

After all, that’s why, over her career, she has migrated fromher position as researcher in Alcorn State University’s Departmentof Agriculture to a job as economics instructor at Copiah-LincolnCommunity College and back to Loyd Star.

“I got back into public education because I saw so many kids whowere struggling in college,” Case said. “I thought I could dobetter, make a bigger difference, if I stepped down and wentbackwards in the school system.”

Case is further driven to improve Loyd Star because her “heart”- 1-year-old granddaughter Chloe Rivers Forrest – will one day be aHornet like her family before her. Case’s Loyd Star-based familyincludes her husband of 28 years, Dwain; her son Hunter, 23; anddaughter Carrie Case Forrest, 25.