The Marion County School District’s reconfiguration of schools will take effect for the upcoming school year with the introduction of true middle schools for both West Marion and East Marion.
At East Marion School, the elementary school will feature grades kindergarten through fifth, the middle school will house sixth, seventh and eighth grades and the high school will be the more traditional nine through 12. Previously, the elementary school went through sixth grade, and the high school featured seventh through 12th.
It will be a slightly different configuration on the West side. West Marion Primary will add the fourth grade, while the middle school will have grades five through eight. Day said in an ideal world, the primary school would include the fifth grade, but there isn’t enough room on the campus without building an additional wing.
The high school will move from grades seven through 12 to grades nine through 12. This reconfiguration of West Marion means the elimination of West Marion Elementary School, which will now become the middle school.
“We would’ve renamed West Marion Primary (as) West Marion Elementary, but it’s just a name. The definition of a primary typically goes to through third grade, but we talked with MDE (Mississippi Department of Education) and they really had no preference,” Day said. “Instead of trying to change the names on the building, all the logos, memos, letterheads and all that, we just left it.”
Cindy Newsome, East Marion High School’s longtime principal, retired at the end of the school year in May and will be replaced by Sarah Gatewood, who served as the assistant principal. Gatewood was initially slated to be the middle school principal, but Day said they were able to convince her to lead the high school.
Beth Boutwell, who was the principal at West Marion Elementary, will be the new East Marion Middle School principal. Angela Johnson will remain the East Marion Elementary principal.
Vicki Boone will remain the principal at West Marion Primary School, while Reshunda Woods will be the principal of the new West Marion Middle School.
“Woods served as the assistant principal (at West Marion High) and kind of ran the ‘middle school.’ I set it up that way last year, though not technically. It let us get acclimated and transition into it,” Day said.
The West Marion High School principal will remain Ryan Stringer.
Day said this transition for the district will be easier to manage both academically and athletically while also shifting more resources to the middle school age group.
“By putting the middle school pieces in play, you have a full-time administrator dedicated to working with those kids. Our goal is to offer more support to that group of kids, which is generally where most schools — including us — have the most kids struggling socially, emotionally and academically,” Day said. “We’ve also added a lot of programs to that area to get them involved.”
East Marion also has a new band director, Jasmine McDonald, who has already started working. McDonald is a graduate of Southern Miss and Union High School and will be overseeing the band program at the elementary, middle school and high school levels.
“She’ll be building from scratch, but the East Marion band was kind of small already. We’re excited, and she’s excited. She’s got some assistants coming in to help,” Day said. “She has a strong organizational set of skills that is pushing her already to get everything set up. She’s already gutted and cleaned out the band hall.”
Retention has been a big issue for the East Marion band, and Day said he believes McDonald will be able to help remedy that issue.
