Terrick McGhee was recently promoted to Child Development and Family Services Manager in the Early Learning and Family Services Division (ELFS). The road to this new position was winding and required a lot of hard work and dedication.
Terrick, or Mr. T as the children call him, applied to be a TA before applying for the childcare position at WEBLC. He was hired in 2014 to work at the now closed West Bremerton Early Learning Center (WBELC) as a childcare provider. He did not have a lot of experience with children at the time, but he had a fun engaging personality perfectly suited for the classroom. At the time of hiring he was planning to obtain a degree in education with a goal of becoming a PE teacher, but once Head Start is in your blood it’s hard to leave.
Since then, Terrick moved up to being a teacher’s aide in the preschool classroom at Rosemary Moen. There he created a stabilizing energy the classroom needed. His next transition was to become a toddler teacher. While it’s relatively rare to have a man in early childhood education, it’s even more rare for one to be a toddler teacher.
As a toddler teacher Mr. T could be found running around with the children, or teaching them chess through our partnership with Chess4Life. He was the teacher, at the time, offering that curriculum to toddlers. All this time Terrick was working through school to earn his degree.
“Doing the interim site supervisor at Moen motivated me to pursue my degree in ECE through WWU. I earned the degree while supervising.” – Terrick McGhee
After earning a degree, an vacancy arose for a site supervisor at Rosemary Moen, and he was the obvious choice.
Recently, the Child Development and Family Services manager had to step down. Before she left, her and the other managers met to discuss if there were any in-house candidates considered as a viable replacement.
Terrick was the unanimous decision. As a sign of his humility, he was surprised by this. The only challenge was, he was so important in his current role at Rosemary Moen that it was hard to take him away from there. After taking some time to discuss it with his family he decided to accept the position on a trial basis, and the program will be better for it.
Something not commonly known, is that 2014 wasn’t the first time Terrick came to Kitsap Community Services. Before West Bremerton ELC existed, it was West Park Head Start. When archiving historical documents for future safe keeping, a photo was found depicting a handsome smiling boy at West Park named Terrick. That is the Same Terrick that would go from an entry level position as a childcare provider in 2014 to a program manager 9 years later.
This rise is evidence of our dedication to promote from within, and Terrick’ s hard work, infectious personality, and wiliness to step-up and lead.