From Student to Principal: Donna Higgins's Full-Circle Journey at Trenton Elementary
Some stories come full circle in the most beautiful ways. Donna Higgins, principal of Trenton Elementary School, sat down with Mary Ann LeRay on The Filling Station to share a journey that began in a kindergarten classroom — at Trenton Elementary itself — where a teacher named Peggy Kring noticed something special in a little girl who already knew how to read. Rather than holding her back, Ms. Kring let young Donna tutor her classmates. "She's the reason that I decided right then… I'm going to be a teacher," Donna recalls. Decades later, she walks those same hallways — this time as the one setting the tone for every child who comes through the door.
A career rooted in Jones County
Donna's path wound through Bethel Christian Academy, Lenoir Community College, and East Carolina University before leading her into the classroom. She spent 13 years teaching fourth grade in Lenoir County, then found her way back home to Jones County — first at Comfort Elementary, where mentor principal Stella Downs recognized her leadership potential and quietly groomed her for bigger things. That mentorship led to a mid-year transition that few educators experience: she left Comfort in December as a fifth-grade teacher and returned in January as its principal. After three and a half years leading Comfort, she was asked to take the helm at Trenton Elementary, completing a journey that began when she was five years old sitting in Ms. Kring's class.
Building leaders, one student at a time
Now in her first full year as Trenton's principal, Donna is energized by a vision that goes beyond test scores. Trenton Elementary is implementing the Leader in Me program — a Franklin Covey-based framework that builds school culture around student leadership, voice, and academic confidence. Her fifth graders have already stepped up in remarkable ways, independently managing logistics like the school's Backpack Blessings food program with minimal adult supervision. The goal: for Trenton to earn Lighthouse School recognition, and ultimately for every Jones County elementary school to follow. "If you give children a voice," Donna says, "they're going to use it — and it's going to be a positive thing."
What drives all of it is something Donna says plainly and without hesitation: "That is our probably greatest asset of Jones County — our children." Whether she's lifting the spirits of a grumpy student at morning carpool or cheering on a kindergartner discovering what they're capable of, Donna Higgins is doing exactly what she set out to do at age five. And she's just getting started.
