Higdon Retires After Quarter-Century With District

Retiring Water Valley School District Superintendent Sammy Highdon said that 25 years doesn’t seem like a long time until you say a quarter of a century. Higdon’s last day is June 30.

Retiring Superintendent Sammy Higdon (center) with family at a recent reception in his honor at Davidson Elementary School. Daughter Denise Hodge is on the left and son Trey is on the right. Trey’s wife, Margaret, is behind. Their children, Hannah (10) and Dalton (8) are in front. Sherry, his wife of 42 years, is not pictured. – Photos by Jack Gurner

By Jack Gurner
Reporter

WATER VALLEY – Twenty-five years doesn’t seem that long to Sammy Higdon.

“But, if you say a quarter of a century,” said the retiring Water Valley School District Superintendent, “that’s a long time in one place.”

Higdon, who leaves the district at the end of this month, came to the Water Valley in 1985 to replace Melvin Ford as Principal of the elementary school

Higdon said that when you take a job, one thing you need to know is why the person who had it is leaving. “Mr. Ford was retiring. He ran a really good school. In other words, I was not going into a difficult situation.”

At the time, Higdon had been with the Oxford Elementary School for about six years as a teacher and then Assistant Principal for both Bramlett and Oxford Elementary Schools. He said that he had been making $12,000 teaching. His pay went up to $24,000 when he came here to take the principal’s job.

The elementary school staff at Water Valley Elementary is outstanding, Higdon said. “I was very fortunate to go into a district that was loaded with staff teachers who are smarter than I am and who are better teachers than I was. They make you look a lot better than you really are.”

One of the problems faced by Higdon was a school where 76 percent of the students received free or reduced price lunches, meaning that Water Valley is a poor school district. “Are you going to use that as an excuse for students not to do well? Poverty is a challenge. But, it is no excuse not to educate a child.”

“You take the kids and you teach them,” he emphasized. “That’s what you get paid to do.”

Research shows that poor students don’t score as well as middle class students, which Higdon agrees is true. “You can’t fight that data. I just didn’t believe in it. For me, there is no excuse in the world for a failing school district or a failing school. I just can’t accept that.”

Being what he describes as “a poor boy from the cotton patches of Arkansas,” Higdon understands poverty. “But,” he added, “just because you are poor doesn’t mean you cannot perform.”

He and his siblings were expected to finish high school, but attending college was not expected. When Higdon graduated in 1967 he left home to find a factory job.

It was the Vietnam era and by 1969 he was in the Army. “Being a poor boy – just like the rest of the poor boys – I got drafted. Like most southern boys you got stuck in the infantry.”

When Higdon returned to civilian life, he went to work for a retail company and took college courses using his GI Bill benefits. “It was the money. I didn’t go for any other reason. I was more interested in feeding my family.”

Eventually Higdon left retail and enrolled in elementary education at Ole Miss. While finishing his degree he worked in several convenience stores and as a two-dollar-an-hour fry cook.

His first job in education was teaching fourth grade at Oxford Elementary School in 1979. By 1983 he had become Assistant Principal.

Then the job in Water Valley came along. He was Principal of Davidson Elementary School from 1985 until 1999. In 1999 he was selected by the School Board to become Superintendent replacing Kenny Goodwin who retired.

Higdon said he had mixed emotions about the job. “When you are principal of the school and you hire these people and work with these people and you are working directly with the students and staff, that’s much more rewarding professionally than it is sitting in this office.”

His feelings about working directly with the staff are reflected in his comments about teachers. “No one can take the place of the classroom teacher. Superinten-dents don’t teach any children. Principals don’t teach any children. Program directors don’t teach any children. Teachers teach the children from 7:30 until 3:00.”

The retiring Superinten-dent said that he has no regrets in his career nor does he have any regrets about staying in Water Valley. “I had opportunities to leave at various times for principal jobs and twice as a superintendent, but, home is where the heart is, I guess.”

He said the community has been good to him. “It has been a good place to raise my family. We’ve got people who want to do the right thing. So, I stayed.”

The closest thing to a regret Higdon can think of is that he never took a week of vacation with his family. “I think that was a mistake on my part. But, it’s hard not to do something 24/7 if you are committed to it.”

Looking toward the future, Higdon said we have a long way to go. “Financially we don’t have the resources that most districts have to provide what we need.”

“That’s why I am very pro consolidation,” he said, “because of what we can offer our high school students in this new world of ours. We can’t continue to do what we have been doing for fifty years.”

He also believes that Mississippi must offer a pre-kindergarten program starting with four-year-olds. “Pre-school is desperately needed so we can get them one year earlier. Children of poverty are about 18 months behind when they come to school. That’s tough to make up.”

Higdon offered this advice to those who follow him as administrators. “Just remember that you are not the smartest person in the building. The teachers are the ones actually doing the work. You are just getting paid more.”

He also repeated one of his favorite quotes from when he faced the difficult task of cutting the budget. “Integrity is when you are committed to do the right thing regardless of the circumstances.”

As for his own future, Higdon said that some educational groups want to hire him to go into under-performing school districts. His job will be to help principals and superintendents come up with a plan for improvement.

“I will do that for a while if I can be of value to the company and to the school district.”

Higdon said that when he stops being of value and doesn’t enjoy it, he will retire. “I don’t have to work, that’s always nice.”