By Melanie Patterson

The North Jefferson News



When Karen White says she’s going to hit the roof, she means it.

She did just that on Friday, sitting on the roof of the school all day despite rain that fell in sheets for part of the day.

White was making good on a promise to her students. She told them that if they sold 300 “golden tickets” to the school’s annual PTA-sponsored fall festival, which happened last Thursday, she would sit on the roof all day.

The incentive worked. Except for a few restroom breaks, White was there all day, including having a noon meeting up there with a Jefferson County School System member.

She said it was important that the students see her keep her word.

“I told them I was going to do it, and I’m doing it,” she said Friday from her chair atop the awning over the front door. “I want them to believe me when I say something.”

She said when parents dropped off their children for school, they went back home to pick up the grandparents so they could also have a look at the principal on the roof.

One man who stopped by the school shook his head in disbelief as he stepped out of his truck.

“I can’t believe you actually went through with it,” he said.

“I made a promise,” said White with a big grin.

She prepared for the cold rainy weather by wearing a pair of coveralls and having an umbrella nearby.

White passed some of the day reading a copy of “Reader’s Digest,” but the office workers said she also kept them busy by giving instructions with her hand-held radio.

“She was a terrific sport about it,” said office assistant LeAnna Brown, especially about White’s keeping her promise “in pouring rain.”

Besides White’s day on the roof, there were other incentives for students to sell the 300 golden tickets, which were 50 cents each.

Teachers got in on the act every hour of the day.

When students met hourly goals, various teachers had their faces painted, dressed up like ballerinas, had their hair painted, got slimed and even kissed a pig.