School Board Names Middle School Co-Principal

HOLMES WILL FOCUS ON SUPERINTENDENT ROLE

PRAIRIE GROVE — Prairie Grove Middle School will have two co-principals and an assistant principal for the 2018-19 school year.

Prairie Grove School Board voted at its July 16 meeting to promote Shayne Taylor from middle school assistant principal to co-principal to serve alongside principal Reba Holmes, who also will be interim superintendent this year.

As part of those administrative moves, Jed Davis, who was hired earlier this year as an assistant principal at Prairie Grove High School, has been reassigned to serve as middle school assistant principal.

Davis has moved into Holmes’ office at the middle school and Holmes will be working out of

the superintendent’s office in the administration building.

Holmes on Friday said she believes her role as interim superintendent needs to be her priority. When looking at the logistics of being both middle school principal and school superintendent, Holmes said she realized there were some mechanics that wouldn’t work.

For example, she would be signing purchase orders both as principal and superintendent and didn’t think she should be doing that. In addition, some decisions she made as principal may have to be approved by the superintendent.

Having Taylor named as a co-principal to make decisions on behalf of the middle school will make sure the school district is accountable and that she is accountable, Holmes said.

Holmes said she and Taylor have worked together for many years and are likeminded when it comes to the middle school.

“I believe the way I’d been running the middle school will continue with Shayne,” Holmes said.

She said it made sense to move Davis to the middle school because he just started July 1 and had not had the chance to get to know the high school faculty.

Taylor said moving Davis to the middle school as an assistant principal will help “bridge the gap” for the year.

Taylor is in his 22nd year as an educator, with a total of eight years with Prairie Grove School District. He first worked for Prairie Grove for three years beginning with the 2007-08 school year. Taylor was assistant principal at the high school and then moved into the assistant principal position at the middle school.

He left for three years to work at Helen Tyson Middle School in Springdale and returned to Prairie Grove in July 2013.

“As soon as my old job opened up again here, I applied for it,” Taylor said. “I came back to family.”

He lives in Prairie Grove. His wife is the English as a second language coordinator for Prairie Grove schools.

Davis came to Prairie Grove from Marion High School where he was head football coach and dean of students. He started with Prairie Grove on July 1.

Holmes was named interim superintendent for the 2018-19 school year following an executive session of the Prairie Grove School Board on June 28. The Board unanimously voted to move former Superintendent Allen Williams into the position of assistant superintendent of finance and appoint Holmes to serve in an interim capacity.

The changes were effective immediately. Williams’ position with the school district had been the main discussion during four executive sessions that occurred over a 10-day period, according to Board President Shawn Shrum.

Shrum has declined to comment on why Williams was moved to a lower position in the administration office, citing the change as a personnel issue.

Shrum said the School Board did not plan to start the search for a new superintendent until 2019.

In other action July 16, as a result of the administrative changes, the board decided to delay any meetings on strategic planning for one year.

It also approved bids for the following projects:

$20,104 from R&M Acoustics Inc., for a new ceiling for the middle school cafeteria.

$11,391 from R&M Acoustics Inc., for new ceilings in three hallways at the elementary school.

$43,697 from Action Sealcoat & Striping to reseal and re-stripe the high school parking lot.

Taylor

Davis