“The most important classroom in American has a dinner table in the middle of it.” – Weston Kieschnick

I’m Jo Darden. After graduating from HHS in 1979, I attended Sampson Community College, earning an Associate’s Degree in General Education,  then transferred to Campbell University, where I earned a B.A. in English, summa cum laude. I taught at SCC for three years before moving to Cleveland, Ohio, where I worked as an executive assistant for a law publishing company; after Cleveland, I moved to Manassas, Virginia, where I raised my daughters, worked as a paralegal, and finally re-entered the field of education with Manassas City Public Schools. I spent eighteen years teaching high school GED; 6th, 7th, and 8th grades for the alternative school; and finally, while completing my M.Ed. in English for Speakers of Other Languages, teaching English for grades 9-12 at Osbourn High School. I moved back to Sampson County to spend some time with my mom and began working as an EC Resource Teacher for Hobbton High School in 2024.