School Board Hires Principals For 2024-2025 School Year
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The Water Valley School Board of Trustees voted to hire principals during a school board meeting on March 28. Board members are (from left) Joseph Flippin, Tonya Eubanks, Jeremy Warren, Rodney Phillips and (not pictured) Kathryn York. Also pictured are Superintendent Drew Pitcock, (right) and Business Manager Randy Goodwin (blue shirt).
WATER VALLEY – The Water Valley School Board of Trustees voted to hire Dr. Vickie Person as principal for Water Valley High School and Lee Gray as principal for Davidson Elementary School (DES) for the 2024-2025 school years. The vote was held during executive session in the March 28 school board meeting.
Both educators are currently serving as interim principals for the spring semester. Person’s appointment as interim principal at the high school came after former principal Drew Pitcock was named superintendent. Gray’s appointment as interim principal came after the contract with the former DES principal was dismissed last October.
Lee GRay
“I am pleased to announced that the school board has approved the appointment of two outstanding individuals to serve as principals within our school district for the upcoming school year,” Pitcock reported. “Their passion for education and their collaborative approach will undoubtedly contributed to the continued success and growth of the Water Valley School District.”
Other business discussed during the meeting included a budget update from Business Manager Randy Goodwin. He reported that funding from the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund, also known as ESSER, is coming to an end.
The Water Valley School District received almost six million dollars from federal funding as part of the U.S. federal government’s stimulus response bills in the aftermath of Coronavirus. The federal funding was used for infrastructure improvements at the district and for equipment purchases.
Approximately $625,120 from the federal funding was used annually to pay salaries in the district. Goodwin said most of the money was used to pay salaries for existing positions including an interventionist, the IT director, two school nurses and five janitors.
Dr. Vickie Person
Goodwin also explained positions were added with the federal funding for two mental health counselors.
Goodwin’s budget update also included other potential budget increases the district could experience totaling almost a half-million dollars. This included a possible increase for the amount the school pays for each employee’s state retirement, a possible five percent increase for health insurance costs and a possible decrease in the state funding the school receives for average daily enrollment. The last item was the teacher’s pay raise. The raises were phased in over a three-year period and the state has funded the entire amount for the first two years, but Goodwin cautioned that there is no guarantee the third year will be state funded.
Goodwin routinely updates school board members about the budget to ensure they are aware of any potential challenges.
