Lori Cargile will be the new Columbus High School principal.
The Columbus Municipal School District Board of Trustees voted 3-0 on Friday to hire Cargile.
The votes were cast by board members Currie Fisher, Josie Shumake and Angela Verdell. Board members Jason Spears and Fredrick Sparks did not attend Friday’s specially called meeting, which began at 5 p.m.
Before voting to make the hire, school board members held no discussion and did not mention Cargile’s name.
Cargile is currently an assistant principal at Columbus High. Her salary as principal will be $87,300 a year.
Cargile said she hopes to focus on “career and college readiness, and teacher morale and teacher support.” She said that in her new position she will look to increase success for students as individuals.
“We have to remember that success looks different for every child,” she said.
CMSD Superintendent Dr. Philip Hickman and Verdell, the school board’s president, both declined to comment following Friday’s vote.
Cargile was director of the high school’s International Baccalaureate program prior to becoming an assistant principal. She is a graduate of Mississippi University for Women and Arkansas State University.
Undray Scott, the high school’s current principal, will remain in his position until June, according to Verdell.
From Hill to Cargile
During the school board’s April 11 meeting, Hickman asked the school board to hire Frederick Hill as the next principal of Columbus High. The board did not take the matter up after Spears said he had concerns about hiring Hill, who, Spears said, “has numerous problems that would be brought to our district.”
Hill was fired from his position as the superintendent of the Natchez-Adams School District by its board of trustees earlier this month, according to The Natchez-Democrat.
Court documents show a federal lawsuit was filed against the Natchez-Adams School District, an assistant superintendent and Hill in May 2014. The plaintiff, a former principal in Natchez, alleged in the lawsuit that her forced retirement was due in part to her race.
The plaintiff won the lawsuit in September. A jury granted her a $668,000 judgment, including a $75,000 judgment against Hill.
Hickman told the board during the April 11 meeting that Hill was one of three finalists for the CHS principal job. The other two, he said, had been “quickly snatched up.”
The Dispatch subsequently made a Freedom of Information Act request for the three finalists’ resumes. The school board’s attorney denied that request, saying the resumes were part of personnel files.
The Dispatch asked Cargile after Friday’s school board meeting if she was one of the three finalists.
“That’s a personnel matter,” she said.
She declined to comment further.
Hickman declined to comment Friday when asked to name the finalists.
Sam Luvisi is news editor and covers education for The Dispatch.
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