Carolyn Sears, Counselor

I love my job as counselor at Elm Street Elementary School.   For over ten years I have watched students arrive as timid kindergartners and leave as confident fifth graders ready for middle school.   

I was born in Athens, Georgia to Bryant and Betty Smith.  Growing up as a bulldog fan made for a wonderful childhood.   We moved to East Point, Ga. and after three years, my father decided that we should move to Newnan.
I started the eighth grade at Newnan Junior High which is no longer standing.  The first week of school I met a very important person…..Brad Sears (my future husband).  I started my college career at Mercer University and had no idea what career to pursue. I transferred to the University of Georgia for a while and then married Brad.  We moved to Spartanburg, South Carolina so he could finish school at Wofford College.  While I was there I got a teaching job as an assistant at a school for children with learning disabilities.  I decided then that education was my calling.  We moved back to Newnan and I finished my degree at the University of West Georgia. 

My first teaching assignment was at Atkinson Elementary School.  I stopped teaching when Corrie and Carson, my daughter and son, came along.  During this time I ran a needlework shop called In Stitches.  After I sold the shop, I returned to teaching which encompassed every grade except 1^st and 5^th.    

My grandmother encouraged me to go back to school and get my counseling degree.  At the time there were no elementary school counselors employed in Coweta County.  I completed my masters and specialist degree near the time counselors were being hired.  Western Elementary and Elm Street were my first assignments….at the same time.   The next year I was assigned only to Elm Street. 

My daughter Corrie is an 8th grade teacher at Madras Middle School.  Carson, my son, is practicing law with his dad.

I am so fortunate to be a part of the Elm Street family.  My brother, children, and husband attended Elm Street.  It is a very caring and nurturing place which produces students ready to meet the challenges of the world.