CCS announces 2 new principals
Calhoun City Schools announced this week that two employees have been named to principal positions and will began those roles in January.
Mana Smith will become principal of Calhoun Primary School and Casey Parker will become principal of Calhoun Middle School, Superintendent Michele Taylor said on Wednesday.
Peter Coombe, who is currently principal of both Calhoun High School and the middle school, will continue as principal and CEO of the high school, while Beth Holcomb, who is currently principal of both Calhoun Primary and Elementary School, will continue as principal of the elementary school.
Taylor said on Thursday that the newly created principal positions had been unfilled for several years because school system officials wanted to focus on aligning the curriculum across grades and schools.
She said they feel confident that has been accomplished and that Smith and Parker, who currently work as assistant principals, are ready to step into their new roles.
“Calhoun City Schools is extremely blessed to have strong leadership at every level, in the classroom, in the schools and across the district,” Taylor said. “Recently, School Governance Teams met for the annual training in October and were asked to share the characteristics of an effective principal. Groups shared that the principal should hold high expectations of themselves and others, be a good communicator and have a sense of purpose and mission. The principal should be a character builder and have the ability to motivate and facilitate. While other characteristics were shared, these were noted as very important for our schools and community. Calhoun City Schools is fortunate to have leaders on the team who exhibit these character traits so when changes in the organization need to be made, it’s not difficult to re-organize, make the change and continue the pursuit of excellence in all areas.”
Smith has served as the associate principal for Calhoun Primary and Elementary School for a number of years and has had more than a decade of administrative experience. She is a 1988 graduate of Calhoun High School and began her teaching career in Calhoun City Schools in 1994 after graduating from the University of West Georgia. She obtained a master’s degree in educational leadership from Lincoln Memorial University and a specialist degree in educational leadership from the University of West Georgia.
Throughout her 25 years in education, Smith has taught kindergarten, first and second grades.
“Fourteen years in the classroom gave her a true understanding of the needs of our youngest learners and helped her prepare for the role of academic intervention specialist, where she served for three years before being named assistant principal in 2011,” Taylor said. “In her role as associate principal, she has had many duties and responsibilities that included coordinating and facilitating professional development and professional learning communities, the schoolwide intervention program, student registration, Student Support Team, hospital homebound services, school safety and the Big Jacket Little Jacket mentoring program. She continues to support classroom instruction by demonstrating and providing training for a variety of instructional practices.”
Smith was selected by her peers as the 2007-2008 Calhoun Primary Teacher of the Year. She is a 2013 graduate of Leadership Calhoun-Gordon County and currently serves on the Education Workforce and Development Chamber Committee. She is a member of Alpha Delta Kappa International Honorary Organization for Women Educators, where she has served as chaplain, secretary and currently as president elect. She has served as a member of the Gordon County Optimist Club and Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northwest Georgia Advisory Board. She has enjoyed the opportunity to serve on the United Way’s Allocation Panel for the past five years, and in 2020, she will begin serving on Gordon County’s Family Resource Organization’s Board of Directors which is the Prevent Child Abuse Agency for Gordon County.
Smith is married to Scott Smith and they have two daughters, Kelsey and Kaitlyn. She is a member of Rockbridge Community Church where she serves as a greeter on the Host Team.
Taylor said Smith will embrace the role of principal by incorporating her work with the Junior Jacket Academy’s Preschool Program, the Calhoun Pre-K Program with the Primary School’s kindergarten and first grade programs.
“Mana has a huge heart for children, is invested in this community, loyal to the district and ready to tackle this next challenge,” said Taylor.
Taylor said this transition will allow CCS to add more than 200 students from the preschool and Pre-K campus to the Educational Complex as they prepare to build the Calhoun Early Learning Academy slated to begin construction in the summer of 2020.
The current school year marks Parker’s 19th year in education. She began her career teaching general music at Eastside Primary School in 2001. Parker was part of the first staff to move into the new building at the Complex. It was there that Parker was recognized as Calhoun Primary School and Calhoun City Schools’ Teacher of the Year for the 2010-2011 school year.
It was also in 2010 that Parker moved to Calhoun High School as choral director and music director for the fine arts department. During her time as a choral director and musical theater director, she was part of eight region and eight state championship wins and even received a Shuler Award nomination for her work with CHS’s production of “Sweeney Todd.”
Parker studied music at Mercer University, earning an undergraduate degree. She continued her education at Lincoln Memorial University, where she earned both her masters and specialist degrees in educational leadership and administration. She is a 2016 graduate of the Chamber of Commerce’s Leadership Calhoun-Gordon County program and she currently serves as an ambassador with Gordon County Chamber of Commerce. She has also served on the United Way’s Allocation Panel for the last two years where she has worked with community agencies to secure funding for various programs and initiatives.
Parker moved into administration several years ago as an instructional coordinator at Calhoun Middle School. In both her roles as instructional coordinator and assistant principal, Parker has coordinated many programs: professional development; SST/504 interventions; school-wide and state testing; new teacher mentor induction program; fifth period scheduling; Hospital Homebound services; PLCs, and was the Advanced Placement (AP) coordinator at CHS for four years. She has served as a member of an Engagement Review Team for the SACS/AdvancED accreditation process and was part of a school team cohort with Georgia Leadership Institute of School Improvement (GLISI).
Taylor said that Parker still enjoys using her musical talents as a member of the choir at First Baptist Church, where she is also the choir director for the Young Musicians group. Her husband, John, is also in education, and they have a daughter named Maggie who is a fifth grader at Calhoun Elementary.
“Parker is bilingual, reflective, insightful and smart. She and Dr. Coombe work extremely well together, so this transition should be quite seamless,” Taylor said.
“Mana has a huge heart for children, is invested in this community, loyal to the district and ready to tackle this next challenge.”
Superintendent Michele Taylor