When students walk through the doors at Richland One’s Olympia Learning Center, it’s usually because they have been placed in the alternative learning environment due to behavioral issues at the schools they’re zoned to attend.
Bobbie Hartwell, Jr. is in his fifth year as principal at Olympia, which serves middle school students and high school students. For Hartwell, his job is to lead the way in providing those students with a second chance.
“We have students who have made mistakes. We let our students know that we’ve all made mistakes, but don’t let that mistake define who you are. If you continue to let mistakes define who you are, you will continue to make those mistakes over and over,” said Hartwell. “We let students know that this is a new start to make them a better version of themselves.”
Hartwell, who is from the Orangeburg County town of North, graduated from the University of South Carolina in 1996. He came to Richland One in 2002 as a math teacher at Southeast Middle School, before becoming an assistant principal at Southeast and serving in that position for five years. He also served as an assistant principal at Lower Richland High School for one year, and he was the principal at Hopkins Middle School for eight years.
Hartwell says going from a traditional school setting to Olympia rejuvenated his career as an educator.
“It got me to see why I truly
got into education. I have always worked best with students that others thought were difficult and can’t be reached. Working with those types of students is a passion of mine,” he said.
Hartwell says building relationships is the most important way to help students at Olympia succeed. He understands that the students may have built up some walls mentally because of the issues they faced at their schools.
“If we don’t establish those relationships, those walls will build up. We have to break down those walls before we can even get to the academics,” said Hartwell.
That relationship-building starts during a student’s intake meeting. During that meeting, Hartwell finds out what a student likes and dislikes, and what makes them upset.
“We use that information to help build a student up and find out how we can better support them,” he said.
If a student is misbehaving during class, Hartwell says he and his administrative staff will normally pull the student out and talk to them before sending them back into the classroom.
“We try to get our students to understand from the adult perspective what exactly they’re looking for and how they can better respond to that situation. When they get back to their zoned school, we want to put them in situations where they know how to respond,” he said.
Creative social-emotional learning is one of the big tools Hartwell and his staff use to
