Mile-long legacy
Street named for retiring DeSoto County Schools Supt.
Retiring DeSoto County Schools Superintendent Milton Kuykendall’s name will now forever be linked to the vocational technical center that was his dream in the city where his education career in the county began.
During a ceremony on the morning of July 28 at the new vo-tech center set to open when fall classes begin this week, Horn Lake officials named the drive leading into the campus Kuykendall Lane.
Kuykendall, who is retiring at the end of the year after 12 years as the head of what has grown into Mississippi’s largest public school district during his tenure, was touched by the tribute.
“I’m honored and surprised, really, that the city would want to do this,” Kuykendall said before a short outdoor ceremony in brutally hot temperatures. “
I raised my children in Horn Lake, and I’ve had a great relationship with the mayor and aldermen for years.”
Kuykendall, 67, was a basketball coach at Horn Lake in the mid-1980s, later becoming principal and serving about 15 years before being elected superintendent of the countywide district, which has about 32,000 students on 42 campuses countywide.
Horn Lake Mayor Allen Latimer said the city wanted to pay tribute to someone who “has always been a friend of the community.”
The street, named in a proclamation approved by aldermen, is about a mile or so long running from Interstate Boulevard past the vo-tech campus.
Latimer said he was especially proud to be able
to link Kuykendall’s name to the vo-tech facility, which replaces the school system’s old, smaller votech operation housed in Southaven High School. The center will serve students interested in a vocational technical career path on the west side of the county.
The school system also operates a vo-tech facility in Olive Branch for students in eastern DeSoto County.
“This vo-tech center is workforce development at its finest,” Latimer said.
Kuykendall said establishing the new vo-tech center for western DeSoto County was one of his priorities before leaving.
“I believe we’re missing a lot of kids by sending everyone through a college prep curriculum,” Kuykendall said. “Kids can come here and learn a trade and end up making more money than the principal of the school.”
Work on the vo-tech center won’t be completed by the time students report for the first day of classes on Wednesday, but some classrooms will be ready to receive students. The culinary center and other parts of the school won’t be ready until later in August.