The Leadership Team - Part 1

The Leadership Team: Fostering Community, Excellence, and Discipleship

North Raleigh Christian Academy’s Leadership Team is a group of 16 administrators who serve the staff, students, and families by overseeing various aspects of NRCA’s ministry. They work together to drive the school’s strategic initiatives developed from the School Improvement Plan and Accreditation Report, ensure operational integrity by crafting and supporting school policies and procedures, and help teachers and students successfully carry out the mission and vision of Kingdom education. During the school year, the Leadership Team meets on the first Friday of each month.

This year saw the largest number of new Leadership Team members since NRCA began. With seven people new to their roles going into the 2022-2023 school year, the team prepared for the upcoming season by holding a leadership retreat away from campus for almost a week in July. Before the retreat, they read The Eight Paradoxes of Great Leadership by Tim Elmore. During the retreat, they discussed the principles in the book and how to apply them in their leadership positions. The team also reviewed the school’s mission statement and identified three key components that NRCA will focus on over the next three years: community, excellence, and discipleship.

Throughout this school year, NRCA will focus on community with the schoolwide theme of “Love God, Love Others.” Romans 12:9-10 anchors this theme. It says, “Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.”

God’s hand is clearly on this ministry, and he has placed key people in positions at NRCA to help lead throughout this season. We are excited to introduce you to the people serving in new Leadership Team positions this year.

This week we meet High School Principal Bruce Dial and Assistant Secondary Principal Chris Rivera.

Bruce Dial | High School Principal

Bruce Dial

I see the role as indirectly ministering to the students by directly ministering to the staff, making sure they’re equipped to do their job and do it well [and] making sure they’re comfortable in their roles so that they feel supported and loved on.

-BRUCE DIAL

Assessing teaching methods, monitoring student behavior, and attending academic and athletic events: these are some of the many duties of a high school principal, and who is better to take on the challenge than Mr. Bruce Dial.

When Dial was offered the position of NRCA high school principal last winter, it was not a proposal he took lightly. Danny Watkins had been NRCA’s principal since the door of the school first opened in the fall of 1996, and Dial knew that Watkins was leaving a large pair of shoes to fill. Dial also knew that he was brought to this position by the goodness of God, and he is dedicated to serving the NRCA staff, students, and families.

“I’m from central Illinois, but in 2004 my wife and I just felt a prompting and nudging in our spirits that it was just time for something new. We just got looking in the area, and by God’s grace, we found NRCA,” said Dial.

Moving to a different state takes a lot of courage, but Dial and his family felt that the opportunity to join the NRCA community was one they could not pass on. Dial came to NRCA in 2004 to become the Dean of Students. His children attended school at NRCA, and his wife, Susan, was part of the administrative staff.

Dial left that role at NRCA for five years to serve as a staff pastor at his church. After spending time away from NRCA, he felt drawn back to teaching. “Our kids were here, Mrs. Dial was here, but then 10 or 11 years ago, I just felt God bring me back,” Dial said.

Dial returned to NRCA to coach JV basketball and to teach seventh-grade Earth Science. Last winter, an incredible opportunity arose that encompassed a whole new set of responsibilities: high school principal.

“The Lord was leading me, but I wanted to respect him as a leader and respect his guidance,” said Dial. “Through the course of several conversations and prayer and prayer and prayer, I felt God had led me to this position.”

And with that emphasis on prayer, it’s clear that the proposition given to Dial was one that took lots of careful consideration and planning. As anyone would, Dial felt the weight of stewarding the responsibilities of the job. A principal has an obligation to serve all individuals that make up the high school, an obligation that is considerably important. “I want to serve the staff, I want to serve the families, and I want to serve you, students, well,” Dial said.

In terms of his role in the school’s daily operations, Dial has shifted from always working one-on-one with students to guiding those who mentor students. “I see the role as indirectly ministering to the students by directly ministering to the staff, making sure they’re equipped to do their job and do it well [and] making sure they’re comfortable in their roles so that they feel supported and loved on,” Dial said.

Dial hopes to succeed in leading the NRCA community and to assist the staff, students, and families in any way he can. In moments of feeling discouraged and overwhelmed by his duties, Dial turns to his faith to meet the challenges of being a principal.

“At times, I know I could lay my head down at night with fear and trepidation,” said Dial. “But I always rest in the belief that, for whatever reason, God’s called me to this place for this season.”

Dial hopes to serve the NRCA community and, most of all, to serve God. “I just want to do what’s right in the eyes of the Lord and stand before him one day and have him say, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant.’”

By: AJ Toler, Shield Editor

Chris Rivera | Assistant Secondary Principal

Chris Rivera

This year Coach Chris Rivera started a new chapter in his time at NRCA. Over the summer, Rivera moved into the role of assistant secondary principal.

“The transition has gone pretty well, but sometimes finding balance between roles can be a challenge,” Rivera said. Rivera also teaches AP European History and serves as head coach for the varsity football team and varsity softball team.

One of the new duties that comes with the role of assistant secondary principal is helping students make good choices with respect to school rules. Over the summer, the administration made a few changes to longstanding policies about student appearance and dress code.

“We love our students. We felt as if the message was getting mixed and that we were coming across as caring more about hair length than the individual, and that just wasn’t the case. So, with the theme of our year being to love God and love others, we wanted to help people understand that well. We’ve just gone through the first 25 years of our school, and in the next 25 years, we want to continue to improve. We want to build on what we’ve

done well but also do some things differently,” Rivera said. “We needed to have something that people would see as being tangible. They could actually touch it and sense it. We felt like making those adjustments was going to help, and I think they have been effective in trying to communicate that there should be a different feeling or sense amongst our students.”

Rivera brings to his new position a fresh way of viewing his role as a disciplinarian. “This is a part of the theme from this year but also has a role in what we want to get across to students. Discipline is derived directly from disciple, discipleship. And there’s a side of that where what we’re doing can be uncomfortable at times when we get out of bounds with our behavior. But [discipline] is bringing our behavior back in line, to get us back in line, so that we can foster the disciples that we want our students to become,” Rivera said.

Rivera has many challenges with his new role, but he is bringing a new light to NRCA and the students.

By: Zachary Nepa, Shield Writer