IN SHORT: Two principals at elementary schools have resigned, and personnel changes have been made at the high school after transfer requests were made by staff members.
By HEATHER HARTSELL
Leader staff writer
The faces of the Cabot school administration will be a bit different when school starts in August after two elementary principals resigned and numerous other changes were made following an executive meeting of the Cabot School Board Wednesday evening.
All changes are effective immediately.
“The elementary resignations and administrative changes at Cabot High School have allowed for existing staff to request different placements for the upcoming school year,” said Dr. Tony Thurman, Cabot superintendent.
Blaine Alexander resigned as principal of Magness Creek Elementary School, a position he has held since 2004.
Alexander was the first of four principals in the state, and the first ever for the Cabot district, to achieve master-school-principal status in March.
Denise Rankin also resigned from her position as principal of Eastside Elementary that she had held for three years.
According to Thurman, both Alexander and Rankin have both moved to the Pulaski County Special School District, a district whose elementary principals have less days on contract compared to Cabot elementary principals that work a 245-day contract.
In order to fill the now vacant positions, existing qualified Cabot staff was rearranged to fill the voids.
Kelly Whiddon will replace Alexander as principal at Magness Creek. Whiddon has served as principal at Southside Elementary School for two years, coming to Cabot from PCSSD. Tanya Spillane will replace Rankin as principal of Eastside Elementary, where she has been an academic coach for four years.
Spillane previously taught elementary school in New Mexico and middle school in Cabot.
Lisa York will move from assistant principal at Magness Creek to principal at Southside Elementary, replacing Whiddon.
Joanne Blalock and Jerry Vaughn are swapping positions.
Blalock will move from principal of Middle School South to principal of Central Elementary; Vaughn will move from principal at Central Elementary, a position he has had for the past six years, to principal of Middle School South, continuing his 26 years in the Cabot district.
“All existing administrators who have changed positions in the district requested to do so and all changes were made with the full support of the administrator,” Thurman said. “Changes were not mandated; the administrators made the decision that they would like to make a change,” he added.
