Starkville High School will have a new principal starting July 1.
Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District Board of Trustees hired Howard Savage to lead the high school after almost two hours of executive session during its Tuesday meeting. Savage is currently principal of Quitman High School in Clarke County, where he leads teacher mentoring, recruitment and retention, according to a press release from SOCSD.
Savage started his 14-year education career as a teacher in the Hattiesburg School District, where he became lead teacher and later assistant principal at Hattiesburg High School. He has received five Administrator of the Year honors from the Mississippi Department of Education, the most recent in 2018.
His first goal when he takes his new position will be to meet with every teacher and student at SHS so he can get to know the school, “where they think the school is right now and where they want to see it go.”
“I believe that collaboration is the key to success in any learning organization, so that’s my first goal, to meet everybody and get myself involved, to be visible and accessible to parents and community members,” Savage said.
He will succeed Sean McDonnall, who told The Dispatch he “decided months ago to take a step back from being a head principal” but will “still be in the district serving students in other ways.” He spent four years as SHS principal and was previously an assistant principal.
“I graduated from Starkville High School and my kids are still students in the district, so my ties go far beyond a job title,” McDonnall said. “I am still 100 percent a Yellow Jacket.”
McDonnall’s new role hasn’t been formally designated, he said.
SOCSD Superintendent Eddie Peasant described Savage in the press release as “a passionate, data driven instructional leader.”
“He has a proven track record of teaching and leading with best instructional practices that improve and sustain student achievement,” Peasant said.
In Savage’s last two years in Quitman, he has served under superintendent Toriano Holloway, who serves as an SOCSD assistant superintendent.
Possible distance learning for summer school
SOCSD has set up task force committees in each of its schools to come up with plans to reopen the buildings, whether that happens this summer or fall, Peasant said during the meeting.
The plans from the task forces are due at the end of the week for district administration to review, he said, and district personnel are discussing their options for summer school in the meantime.
“We’re talking about a potential virtual plan and a face-to-face plan, but we just don’t know what we’re going to be able to do,” Peasant said. “We might have to do virtual (learning) in June, and we might finally be able to do face-to-face (learning) in July, but if we’re allowed to do face-to-face in June, we’re hoping to be able to do some level of face-to-face, especially for those students who need it the most.”
Board President Debra Prince asked Peasant if the district should consider local numbers of confirmed cases over permission from the state to reopen, since Oktibbeha County saw a recent spike of about 30 cases, and Secretary Jamila Taylor said the city of Starkville could impose restrictions that differ from the state’s.
“Whatever we’re allowed to do to make our own decisions, we’ll get together and determine what we think we can do,” Peasant said.
The district’s meal distribution program that started in March will continue in June if summer school must be conducted via distance learning, Peasant said. The program serves about 900 students per week.
SHS students will not be required to take final exams, but about 140 students have chosen to take them in order to increase their grades, Peasant said. The final exams will consist of 20 questions covering the entire school year, including information from nine weeks of distance learning, Public Information Officer Nicole Thomas told the board.
The board will hold a special-call meeting May 21 at 10 a.m. to discuss how the points from the final exams will be awarded.
In other business, the board voted unanimously to change the job title and description for the district’s director of technology to the director of instructional technology and distance learning. Peasant said the technology department is “about 10 to 12 years behind” in how it is run.
“Today’s technology leader in a school district needs to be an educator and needs to understand the purpose of technology in curriculum and instruction,” he said. “This pandemic has highlighted this more than ever. We have got to shift our focus in our technology department to more instruction-oriented leadership to make decisions. We’re not where we need to be as far as the number of devices that we need in our district and a lot of the other (technology) infrastructure needs.”
Tess Vrbin was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 46 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
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Related Photos
Sean McDonnall
Howard Savage, right, introduces himself and his family to the Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District Board of Trustees at their Tuesday meeting after the board hired Savage as Starkville High School's next principal. From left, Savage's wife, Angela, and their children Amaya, 11, Amara, 18, and Amarion, 15. Photo by: Tess Vrbin/Dispatch Staff
Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District Board of Trustees President Debra Prince, left, discusses the schools' potential reopening with Superintendent Eddie Peasant, right, while Vice President Sumner Davis and Board Attorney John Hill listen at Tuesday's meeting. SOCSD has set up task force committees in each of its schools to come up with plans to reopen the buildings. Photo by: Tess Vrbin/Dispatch Staff
