Jody Richards Elementary School Principal Leslie Shultz said teachers are carrying a mountain’s worth of expectations on their backs.

Between transforming their lessons on the fly for a student with dyslexia or ADHD, to even factoring in a student’s daily mental health, it’s a lot to handle, she said.

“Information overload is something my teachers are tackling right now,” Shultz said, and she sees her role as her school’s new principal to help teachers personalize classroom learning for each of their students.

Shultz, who has a teaching background in special education, was named Jody Richards Elementary’s principal in April after serving as assistant principal there since 2014.

She replaced Stephanie Martin, who took a position at Western Kentucky University.

Since that time, Shultz has been laying the groundwork on plans she has for her school when students return Aug. 7.

That includes efforts to sharpen students’ vocabulary and coping skills for talking about social and emotional issues when something’s wrong.

The Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning said social and emotional learning is the process through which children and adults understand and manage emotions, set and achieve goals, feel and show empathy for others, create and maintain positive relationships and make responsible decisions.

Helping students talk about those issues is an important first step.

“We want to really increase the students’ social emotional vocabulary,” Shultz said.

Growing up in Shepherdsville as the daughter of two educators, Shultz thought she wanted something different as a career. She attended WKU and earned a business degree, but she ended up in education after pursuing an alternate route to teacher certification program there.

When she started substitute teaching, Shultz said, “it felt like home.”

Shultz began her special education teaching career at Butler County Schools in 2005, then took a similar job at T.C. Cherry Elementary School in 2012. Her first administrative position came in 2014 with assistant principal job at Jody Richards Elementary.

Shultz is married to her husband, Shane, and together they have an 8-year-old daughter, Dylan, who will be a third-grader at Jody Richards Elementary in the fall.

For Shultz, her favorite thing about her school is the mornings, when students and staff show up happy to see one another and start the day.

“It’s kind of like a magical time of the day,” she said.

– Follow education reporter Aaron Mudd on Twitter @BGDN_edbeat or visit bgdailynews.com.