WS Chronicle

After serving as principal at Carver High School for nearly a decade, in March Carol Montague-Davis will retire. 

Recently The Chronicle sat down with Montague-Davis to discuss her time spent at one of the district’s most historic schools in the area to find out what Carver Nation means to her. 

Montague-Davis’ retirement marks the end of her second stint as principal at Carver. She served as principal from 2004 to 2008, but left to take an assistant superintendent position with the district. In her first stint at Carver, Montague-Davis was instrumental in leading the school’s improvement plan. She also brought new programs to the school, like the Academy of Hospitality and Tourism, which exposes students to a wide variety of opportunities and career paths.

In 2017, Montague-Davis decided to return to Carver with a goal to make sure students at Carver are proud to be Yellowjackets. She said for generations Carver has been a pillar of the community and it’s important that the legacy continues. 

“Carver to me is a family-oriented community school that’s an important pillar of the community. It’s hard to find anybody in this community who doesn’t have a connection with Carver and we just can’t lose that,” Montague-Davis said. “When the students graduate, we want them to say ‘I graduated from Carver and I am proud to be a Yellowjacket.’” 

A year after she returned, and  two  years after it was tagged as one of the lowest performing schools in the state, Carver showed more growth than any other high school in the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County district and exceeded expectations, according to the N.C. Accountability Report. Montague Davis said the turnaround was a direct result of hardworking faculty and staff who were willing to go above and beyond the normal call of duty to help students.  

Since 2017 Montague-Davis has also helped establish a boys’ soccer team at Carver for the first time in over a decade, attendance at football games has increased, JROTC has seen an increase in enrollment, and Carver Pride is alive and well throughout the hallways and the community. 

“I think the students are beginning to be proud, not that they weren’t proud before, but it’s coming back. You can see it at the games, you can feel the intensity that you used to feel,” Montague-Davis said. “But I think the most important thing is we wanted to make a name for Carver and make sure people understand that we have some great programs and students. There’s a lot of great things going on, so we really just wanted to build on the things that were already here and make sure the kids understand that they have everything they need right here.”

In addition to the Academy of Hospitality and Tourism, Carver now offers the Academy of Information Technology. And since making her return, Montague-Davis has launched the E-Cubed Program, which focuses on making sure students are prepared for life after high school. “E-Cubed means when our students leave, we want them to be able to enroll in a two-year or four-year college, be able to enlist in the military, or be prepared to be employed,” Montague-Davis explained. 

“We believe that if we focus ourselves around the E-Cubed vision, we are meeting the needs of all our students.”

Montague-Davis’ retirement will become official on March 1. Her successor will be Thyais Maxwell, who will start at Carver on Jan. 10 and work with Montague-Davis until March. When asked about her plans for retirement, Montague-Davis said she doesn’t really have one. “I don’t really have a plan because I’ve been planning my whole life. I just wanna chill,” she laughed. 

Although she won’t physically be in the building, it’s safe to say Montague-Davis’ legacy will live on in the hallways of Carver and in the hearts of the students. Attorney Nicole Little, who is a 2009 graduate of Carver, said Montague-Davis is the reason she wanted to attend Carver. 

Little said she had just moved into Carver’s district and attended a pep rally held during the summer. At that pep rally Montague-Davis gave a speech. “To energize the students about the upcoming school year, Young Joc’s hit single, ‘It’s Going Down’ started playing and she commenced to do the infamous motorcycle dance and the gym went insane,” Little explained. 

“Although it may have been just a moment for current students who already had the pleasure of knowing her personally, that moment spoke volumes to me. Mrs. Montague-Davis’ willingness to meet her students where they are, relating to them on a personal level to motivate them academically, that’s what that moment told me,” Little said. “After enrolling and attending Carver, my initial impressions were confirmed. Mrs. Montague-Davis will be remembered as an administrator that cared for her students, both personally and academically. 

“She will be remembered for modeling excellence and installing a sense of pride, camaraderie, and family at Carver High School.”