Other finalists include Daniel Cohan of Pomona High School, Arvada, Colorado and  Steven Miletto of R. L. Osborne High School, Marietta, Ga.

Beckham has served as principal of Wando High School in for over 10 years. Despite having 3100 students, Wando is one of the highest-performing high schools in the state. Much of that success can be attributed to Beckham’s gentle leadership which has earned her a great deal of respect among teachers and colleagues.

Undaunted, Beckham took on the principalship at Wando while the district was in the process of designing a larger building to accommodate the town’s rapid growth. When the new school opened in 2004, Beckham was determined to not let the massive structure deter faculty and staff from reaching each and every student.

She helped form four career-related schools of study and a ninth-grade academy that provide opportunities for personal connections. Students at all grade levels meet with faculty advisers weekly and as they move to the upper grades, they are assigned to an administrator/counselor team who monitors and supports each student until graduation.

Further, Beckham makes a strident effort to keep in constant communication with parents and the community at-large through the school’s Web site and the weekly education column she pens for the Moultrie News.

Under the conviction that quality teachers are the driving force behind the success of a school, Beckham has recruited some of the nation’s top educators to work at Wando. She supports her staff through continued professional development and with the quality feedback received from the 200-plus observations completed monthly by the school’s administrative team.

A recent school climate survey showed that over the last four years, teacher satisfaction with the school’s learning environment skyrocketed from 85.2 percent to 97.9 percent and in the same period, satisfaction with the social and physical environment jumped to 98.5 percent.