By RICK KRON
Leader staff writer
Jacksonville High School will get a new principal in the fall—the fourth in about two years—but this one calls the move “coming home” and plans to stay.
But the head spot for Jacksonville Middle School remains open.
The new high school principal, Henry Anderson, is leaving his position as Crossett High School principal to take the Jacksonville post.
At the same time, Karl Brown—who was on a one-year contract with the former Pulaski County Special School District superintendent as a director and liaison between the high school and central office—did not have his contract extended and is no longer with the district.
“I’m looking forward to getting back home,” Anderson said on the telephone Friday afternoon in between teary goodbyes with his staff. “I really hate leaving Crossett, but I see Jacksonville High as an opportunity to make some of the same positive changes that we’ve been able to achieve here.”
Anderson started his teaching career with PCSSD, teaching English and Spanish at Fuller Middle School. He then went to work with the technology department and was responsible for most of the Jacksonville schools.
Anderson also worked as an assistant principal at Wilbur D. Mills University Studies High School and served as a department chair at the Arkansas School for Math, Science and the Arts in Hot Springs.
He was hired as Crossett High’s principal in the late spring of 2009.
Anderson said leaving Cros-sett will be difficult, but the opportunity to meet a new challenge, and family considerations helped sway his decision. He spent most of Friday interviewing and filling vacancies at Crossett High and said he’d start his move to central Arkansas next week.
First on his agenda, Anderson said, will be to get to know the staff, review the test scores and become more familiar with a grant, worth up to $6 million, that Jacksonville High School is receiving to help improve student achievement.
Anderson grew up in the Little Rock area and relocated to Georgia after joining the Army Reserves and serving in Central America and Fort Sam Houston, Texas.
He has bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
Anderson also has an education-specialist degree in education leadership and is two years away from his doctorate, which he is studying for at Harding University.
North Pulaski High School and Northwood Middle School will have the same leadership as they did last school year—Jeff Senn at North Pulaski and Dr. Kirk Freeman at Northwood.
Tracy Allen is coming over from the North Little Rock School District to be the principal of Sylvan Hills High School, and Jo Wilcox will continue as principal of Sylvan Hills Middle School but will be in the new $32 million facility come this fall.
The Ashley News Observer contributed to this report.
