After Michelle Thompson announced her retirement, South was looking for a new assistant principal.

Welcome to South, Brionee Smith! 

She has spent her last two years in administration at Parkway West. Who is she? 

“I was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, and spent half of my life growing up in the South. At about the age of 12, I moved to a small town in Arizona. I grew up in Yuma, AZ, and participated in dance and cheer in high school. I also participated in track, volleyball, and basketball. I have a beautiful 12-year-old daughter that attends South Middle, and co-parent with my sister to raise my 5-year-old niece who will be attending Barretts Elementary. I also have a boyfriend that is my high school sweetheart,” said Smith. 

Before making her way into administration, she taught a world of students, in different districts, and of different ages. 

“I started my teaching journey in San Luis, Arizona- where I taught 32 3rd Grade ELA students. I then moved to Saint Louis and taught in the 5th-grade classroom at Confluence South City Academy for 3 years. The population of students that I worked with were all of Hispanic/African-American descent and were 100% free/reduced lunch population. Following that, I taught 8th grade Reading at South City Academy, and then was promoted to the instructional coach position and worked with students and teachers in 5th-8th grade. In my time at South City, I also served as an administrative intern, dance coach, cheerleading coach, and step team coach. I began my career as an administrator at West High School and am now transferring to South High School,” said Smith. 

As some might not know South Assistant Principal Jenn Sebold was also an administrator at West before coming to South. 

“Both schools are very similar. There are great teachers and kids in both places. I think both schools have great spirit and involvement as well. The teachers at South High are happy to be here and they support the administrators wholly. I think that is hard to find elsewhere. In a lot of places, there is tension between admin and teachers. You don’t typically find that here. I love the tone,” said Sebold. 

While change is hard, Smith said she is more than ready for the challenge. 

“I’m pretty excited! I am not worried or nervous at all. Just ready to get started!” said Smith.

Smith’s life obviously does not stop at the doors of the school.

“In my free time I love to listen to books on Audible, read, work out, and look for new pins on Pinterest! 🙂 I absolutely LOVE decorating, traveling, dancing, and learning more about real estate and stocks. I currently have my own LLC for real estate that I work on in my free time as well. Family is very important to me, and I have a great group of friends that I often spend time with as well!” said Smith. 

As every change comes with a story Mrs. Smith’s reason for the move was her family.

“My motivation for moving from West to South is my daughter. When I started working at West, my daughter had to leave Confluence South City, and move to Parkway with me. She has had so many changes in the past 2 years, leaving a campus and friends that she was familiar with, and then coming to Parkway. Unfortunately, I was unable to get my daughter in the same region of Parkway in which I worked. Working in a different Parkway region has presented some difficulty in my “mom life.” As such, either I could keep working to get my daughter in the West region or I could move to the southern Parkway area. I cannot put my daughter through yet another change, so I am moving to South High School so that it will be better for my family. Not only that, I have come to love the South community as I have become more acquainted with it as a South area Parkway parent,” said Smith.

Although the change is necessary for Smith’s family and family life, there will be things from West at Smith will miss. 

“My students! I have formed so many great relationships with my kiddos. I will miss them dearly,” said Smith. 

All in all, Smith is excited about the change ahead. 

“I am most excited about participating in all of the fun activities! I am really excited about becoming a part of the Patriot family,” said Smith.