CHOCOWINITY — Unity Christian Academy will welcome a new administrator in June, and with a wealth of training and experience, she’s ready to take the reins.

Jessica Crocker, born and raised in Washington, is replacing Ken Leys, who is officially retiring after this school year.

Crocker is not new to education. She has a master’s degree in teaching from East Carolina University and taught third grade at John Cotten Tayloe before taking a year off to stay home with 9-month-old daughter Kate.

Once the new job opportunity arose, however, Crocker said she decided that taking the next step in her career, rather than going back to teach third grade, was the right thing for her family. Crocker and husband Glenn also have two sons, Colin and Brennen.

“It was a really hard decision because Tayloe is a great place,” she said. “I think that being fresh out of the classroom … it’s going to give me good insight on things.”

Crocker has been visiting Unity Christian every week to get comfortable, but she said she still has a lot to learn about the school.

“I am going to take my first year to really get acclimated with the school,” Crocker said. “Unity is a Christian school, and that makes it unique in many ways.”

She said she wants to build upon the positive aspects of UCA, continuing the school’s emphasis on community service and strengthening the relationships between younger and older students.

Crocker said she also wants to contest the stigma associated with private schools —many think they are taking the “good kids” from public schools.

“I don’t see it that way,” she said, adding that private schools have challenges, too. “We still need good Christian people in the Christian schools.”

Instead, she wants residents to view her background in the public schools as an asset, as something that speaks to UCA’s identity as another option for parents, instead of competition.

Unity Christian is in no way perfect, Crocker said, but she hopes to continue moving in the direction of its goal to educate “authentic Christian leaders.”

“God is in everything that we do,” she said. “We want that to be the focus of what we do here.”