[Ed. Note: On May 5, the Capitol Hill Community Foundation held its 41st annual recognition of those who have served our community with distinction. One of the awardees this year was Stephanie Byrd, Payne Elementary’s principal since 2016. Byrd’s brief speech that evening—reprinted below with her permission—not only underscores how vital her service has been to so many, but also gets to the heart of this moment in American history and public education. Enjoy.]

By Stephanie Byrd

I’d like to start by saying thank you. Thank you to the Capitol Hill Community Foundation for acknowledging my small contribution to this corner of this universe.

I am truly grateful and honored.

We live in a world that is ripe with opportunities for love. We are alive at a time when illusions are being stripped away. In this hour, our humanity is palpable.

What we truly believe about what it means to BE . . . to be here in this world, together, is bursting out of every moment.

It’s an exhaustingly exciting time to be alive.

Because we stand in a moment that is waiting and wanting love.

Our love.

I came to Payne with a clear mission to ensure that students who are traditionally locked out of opportunities in this world gain access through their own volition, their own skills, and their own desires.

This to me is the purpose of education.

At Payne, we focus on each individual child, we have data-driven instruction, and we focus on growing teacher efficacy for the express purpose of building a school where Genius lives. And by Genius, I mean the students; we earnestly believe that each child comes to us with an innate ability for genius-level performance.

Due to the work of an incredible team of brilliant believers, some who are here with me tonight representing many others who could not be here, we have fashioned and formed what we call The Payne Way. A way to bring out the genius in every child.

We take time to pontificate on the questions of: what more can we do? Did we reach every child? What is the impact of our efforts? Are we who we say we are?

What we have come to realize, what we know for sure, is that at the end of the day, it’s all about love.

We have a common saying at Payne Elementary School: If you love the children, you will teach the children.

This, as you can imagine, is no easy task.

We often get in our own way; we confuse love with affection; we confuse love with ease in the face of frustration; we sometimes confuse love with practices that allow children to fail. But we don’t let that stop us, because over the years what we have learned is that real love is unrelenting.

It starts with seeing each other and ends with doing for one another.

Together.

And while I stand here tonight, I cannot take all of the credit for our work.

No, it starts with the parent who makes the choice to get the child to school.

It includes the bus driver–can I tell you all a real quick story?

I’m in the office, and someone comes in and says Mr. Workman, our school social worker, just went over to Potomac Avenue because the police picked up two of our kids.

I said, “Ok? Picked them up for what?” They said, “I don’t know, these are elementary kids. I don’t know what they picked them up for, but he went over there. I just know he left here and went there to see about our children.”

While the social worker was en route, a police officer walks into the school with two of our little people and says they are not in any trouble, they just looked too young to be traveling by themselves, so I wanted to walk them and make sure they made it to school safely.

There’s an unwitting mother who believes in the promise of Payne Elementary School and who put her trust in this community.

That’s love!

This love:

Our custodial foreman, who goes into the building each morning and walks every inch to ensure that the building is safe, clean, warm, and ready for students; the cafeteria staff, who come in and prepare breakfast. Teachers, who come in with a multitude of bags–I don’t know why, but teachers seem to have a lot of bags where they carry every little thing a child may need in order to have a great day.

It’s being able to be in a classroom that is equipped with all the things. Spaces where a 10-year-old, who is being awakened to all of the things of this world, can put it all down and just be: Soft beanbag chairs, books, fidgets, well-educated and trained teachers, and field trips, Live It Learn It, The Open Book Foundation, Food Prints. Thank you, Capitol Hill Community Foundation.

It’s being in a community where children can walk home safely after school, stop at the grocery store and people know your name–it’s feeling safe. Do you know how important that is? To walk out of your school and know that you are safe?

These are the things of love.

This is what our world is crying for right now. Our humanity is on display.

We know who we are by the way we treat our children. We know what we believe by the way we treat our children.

I am grateful for the opportunity to serve this community as Payne Elementary was named a 2024 National Blue Ribbon school.

I am honored to serve alongside each of you.

I am overjoyed to be in a community that is poised for action–that is poised to love.

Thank you.