When Paint Branch discovered it was going to be home to a new principal for the 2013-2014 school year, no one really knew what to make of it.

After all, Ms. Dixon had been the PB principal since anyone could remember. It’s pretty safe to say that we all expected a dictator to walk through the front doors and start changing everything we love about our school. Boy, we could not have been more wrong.

It’s mid-October, and Paint Branch feels as it always has. The atmosphere is relaxed, yet respectable; unique, yet typically high school. The hallways are still lined with our indescribable culture.

Our students and staff still carry themselves with a certain PB flair, the style that makes us stand out from every other school in the county. Very few changes have been made to our policies and the rules/guidelines for Paint Branch behavior are as they have always been.

Dr. Rogers has done an admirable job at making us, students, staff and parents, feel at home, helping us transition from one Paint Branch era to another. She has worked to bring all students into the PB lifestyle, one that consists of having pride in oneself, one’s friends, peers and school: Essentially, she has worked to have us see this place as more than just a school. She has celebrated us at our best moments and encouraged us to do better at our worst. It feels almost as though she has been a Panther, like us, from the very beginni