Corey Ramsey may not know how to juggle, but he's getting pretty good at keeping balls in the air.

Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn's middle school principal is juggling a new job, new building and new community all at once. It may be taxing, but he's liked what he's seen from the district so far.

"It's been kind of a crazy ride trying to get everything organized," he said. "But we're really excited about this opportunity."

Ramsey succeeds Mark Dorhout as the leader of H-M-S's 5-8 grade building. He comes from the Quad Cities area with a background in special education, most recently serving as head of special ed at Williams Intermediate in the Davenport school system.

Ramsey has held a variety of K-12 educational roles in Iowa and Illinois in addition to spending time at the AEA and Ashford University. He said his most recent job in Davenport was challenging, but extremely rewarding.

The district has a high poverty rate, which feeds behavioral and learning issues among the student body. He was charged with addressing a wide swath of problem areas during his tenure and believed he came out better for it.

"I thought I was probably walking into a cluster when I took the job, but the principal was well liked by people that I knew and it seemed like a good opportunity to make some big change," he said. "I went over and it was the greatest move I think I've made."

Ramsey's work in Davenport was challenging. He said students often held bad attitudes about their education and expressed their displeasure in a variety of ways. Strong relationships were key, and he tried to implement change by building bridges among students and staff.

He said it was commonplace to have students roaming the halls and showing levels of disrespect towards teachers and administrators that were a "rude awakening" for him.

"You learn how to deal with behavior and how to deal with the functions of the behavior with each individual," he said. "Being hard with these kids isn't going to get you anywhere because they're coming from homes where parents aren't there or don't care about education. Even so, it was really good experience to have and you learn a lot from being in a situation like that."

Ramsey said he was excited when he saw the H-M-S position open up and eagerly applied. Superintendent Patrick Carlin questioned whether the change would be a shock to the system, but Ramsey wasn't worried.

"When I first interviewed, Patrick asked me if I would be able to adjust to the different atmosphere here. I looked at him, and I said, 'Mr. Carlin, are you kidding me? That's about the easiest adjustment I'll make for the rest of my life,' " Ramsey recalled with a laugh. "I was ready to slow things down."

The rest is history. Ramsey started his new gig this month and has been working out of Carlin's office in the high school while work wraps up on the new junior high. He has met with all of the middle school staff and believes they are anxious, but ready, to get into their new digs.

"I've been impressed and I think they're ready for change. They want to do what's best to help kids," Ramsey said. "If you have that base of people that enjoy being together, working with each other, supporting each other and care about kids, you're going to accomplish what you set out to accomplish."

Immediately, the new principal would like to see test scores improve as well reducing the need for special education among students without disabilities.

"When you get up into the 20-something percent of your student population needing special education, now you're starting to talk about other issues," he said. "You don't necessarily have an abundance of kids with disabilities, you've got an issue just generally with your gen ed instruction."

Ramsey already believes he has the infrastructure and support in place at H-M-S to make positive changes.

"I don't want to manage; I'm a leader. I'm going somewhere where I can make change because just managing is boring to me," he said. "I feel like in this small school district, I have more resources available to me to help kids than what we had in Davenport. To me, that's just amazing and a testament to where H-M-S is as a district and where Mr. Carlin has gotten them at this point."

Ramsey, 45, and his wife, Lindsey, reside in Sanborn with their two younger children, Teagan, 4, and Ainsley, 7. They also have three older children: Zachary, 20, a student at the University of Iowa; Kari, 22, a student at Iowa State University; and Morgan, 24, who lives in Des Moines. Lindsey, who previously worked in higher education, will serve as an elementary literacy specialist at H-M-S this year.

Ramsey was excited to move into the new middle school next month and even more thrilled to meet students.

"It is a great opportunity," he said. "There is a lot of room for us to grow."