A familiar face will lead Columbus Municipal School District for the majority of this school year.
The board of trustees voted in executive session of a special-call meeting Thursday to hire Dennis Dupree Sr. as interim superintendent. The decision came roughly 48 hours after the board accepted the abrupt resignation of Superintendent Cherie Labat on Tuesday evening after she had worked four years with the district.
Dupree’s contract is for 117 days, for which the district will pay him $87,500. He told The Dispatch he hopes to start by the end of August. He will serve while the board seeks a permanent replacement for Labat.
Dupree retired in 2019 after serving 12 years as superintendent at Clarksville School District. Before that, he spent 15 years with CMSD, starting as a classroom teacher in 1992 and serving as interim superintendent in 2007 before leaving for Clarksdale.
During his tenure at CMSD, he served stints as assistant principal, principal for the Hunt sixth-grade campus and assistant superintendent for student support services.
“I see Mr. Dupree as someone who will add stability and cohesiveness to our students, staff, facility and community,” board president Yvonne Cox told The Dispatch in a prepared statement after Thursday’s vote. “He is a lifelong educator, and he lives right here in Columbus. I’m grateful that he’s accepted the challenge and is willing to recommit to educating our children at CMSD.”
Dupree said after the board approached him about serving as interim, he couldn’t say no.
“At first I was a little apprehensive, but I’d do anything to help out my hometown,” he told The Dispatch in a phone interview Thursday night.
The first order of business, he said, is to get a high school principal and start filling the district’s nearly 30 other vacancies with qualified people. Former CHS principal Craig Chapman was promoted to assistant superintendent effective July 1, but he has been serving in both roles since while the search continues for his replacement as principal.
The board on Thursday also gave CMSD’s other assistant superintendent, Shernise Wilson, the authority to recommend disciplinary action and non-administrative personnel moves to the board until Dupree is in place.
Dupree said he will maintain a good relationship with the board and foster strong communication lines with staff and the public. One way he plans to do that is through monthly “superintendent roundtables” where community members can interact directly with him about district issues.
“I communicate well with the public,” he said. “I feel like that’s very important. We have to get the community members and the staff to buy into the district.”
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
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