Dear Ballantyne Families,

Welcome to the 2024-2025 school year!  As we begin a new year together, I want you to know I am honored to be the principal at Ballantyne and continue the great work we started since February of this year! This will be my first full year at Ballantyne Elementary.  Ballantyne has quickly become my home away from home. The community, parents, and teachers come together to make students a priority.  Our teachers engage students in the learning process through engaging activities, technology, and movement. 

I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself to our families that are new to Ballantyne. I graduated from The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill in 2003 with a Bachelor's in Journalism and Mass Communication. Afterwards, I attended The University of Michigan- Ann Arbor where I received my Masters In Elementary Education. After teaching for several years, I went to Wingate University to obtain my license in School Administration. I have been in education for twenty years. I started my teaching career in Winston-Salem before moving to Charlotte. I taught at Pineville Elementary School for six years as a fourth grade teacher. Then I had the opportunity to serve as the Dean of Students, Assistant Principal, and Principal of Lake Wylie Elementary for thirteen years. I am excited to continue my journey in education as principal of our school!

Family is important to me.  I love to spend weekends traveling, spending time with family/friends, and finding new restaurants to eat at!   My husband, Sam, is a Software Engineer.  Shailen, our oldest son, is 10 years old and Savan is 6 years old.

This year our theme is “One School. One Team. One Goal.  We are BES-T!”  I believe we are all one team working together to make a difference in our school and community.  Our teachers, community partners, parents, and students all play an important role in making our school a great place to learn!  My goal is to get Ballantyne Elementary to an A School! 

Ballantyne Elementary has a strong community support system that is committed to ensuring that each student is provided with the necessary tools to be successful. There is a strong sense of community and school pride at Ballantyne. I want to continue to strengthen the relationship between our school, parents, and community. I ask that all parents continue to support our PTA.  Throughout the year, they support our students and teachers. This year, PTA has paid for the Leader in Me program, Scholastic News magazines for all Kindergarten students, and IXL, standards-aligned literacy/math program, for all 1st-5th grade students. These programs cost over $25,000 combined. We all take a part in ensuring that our school is the best it can be!  If you ever have ideas of ways to improve our school, I would love to hear your feedback.

My goals as the Instructional Leader at Ballantyne is to ensure that the educational experiences that we offer your child on a daily basis will extend far beyond textbook knowledge and educate the whole child, because that is what I would hope for my own children.  My vision is to see that every child has an engaging, relevant learning environment that challenges them to succeed beyond their own expectations.  We will also continue to teach our students how to be leaders beyond the classrooms. 

It is important for parents to be informed of school events, changes in the schedule, and school wide initiatives that are taking place. I want to encourage you to be actively involved and know what is happening within the school. We will communicate with parents through our weekly Connect Ed messages, Website, teacher weekly emails, monthly Principal Coffee sessions, and Parent Square.  Working together, I know we can make this a year of Excellence at Ballantyne Elementary School!

Yours in Education,

Jigna Patel, Principal