By Nicole Thomas
The Starkville Oktibbeha Consolidated School District Board of Trustees has appointed three assistant principals to lead Starkville High School, Millsaps Career and Technical Center and East School.
Sean McDonnell was named principal of Starkville High School. McDonnell is currently an assistant principal at SHS.
Lenora Hogan, also assistant principal at SHS, was named director of Millsaps Career and Technical Center.
Watress Harris, an assistant principal at Armstrong Middle School, was named director of East School, which will house the District’s alternative education program beginning in August.
“Mr. McDonnell, Dr. Hogan and Dr. Harris are experienced administrators who share a strong commitment to our District, our students and teachers,” Supt. Lewis Holloway said. “We’re excited about the opportunity for them to assume key leadership positions in the District.”
McDonnall and Hogan are graduates of the SHS Class of 1989. Harris graduated from SHS in 1998.
The trio is also three-year graduates of the District’s Leadership Cohort, which is led and facilitated by Asst. Superintendents Tori Holloway and Jody Woodrum.
“I’m super excited that my classmate and I are doing this work together,” said Hogan referring to McDonnall.
Hogan, who began her career as an educator in 1999, joined the faculty of Henderson School in 2002 and taught sixth grade math. She returned to her alma mater in 2009 as a curriculum technology specialist.
“My career has come full circle,” said Hogan. “I was a student at Millsaps in high school, and I was actually awarded a gold medal as a participant in the food services program my senior year. When I think about that course, I realize how it really expanded my high school experience. I look forward to working with teachers, students and parents as we consider new programs and further support existing opportunities for students to be successful.”
Hogan earned her doctoral and masters degrees in educational leadership from Mississippi State University. She also holds bachelors degrees in elementary education, business administration, and marketing from MSU.
Harris credits his former teachers and administrators for influencing his life, and he hopes to have the same profound impact.
“My goal as the director of East Alternative School is to develop significant relationships to facilitate learning and to provide all the available resources needed to ensure that students will be successful at their home-school to continue their education and ultimately earn a high school diploma and college degree,” Harris said.
Harris began his teaching career in the former Starkville School District as a science teacher at AMS in 2003 before becoming an assistant principal in 2006 at Ward Stewart Elementary School. He returned to AMS as an assistant principal in 2011. Harris holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Educational Leadership from Mississippi State University. He also earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from MSU.
McDonnall holds a bachelors degree in math education from Delta State University and a masters degree in technology education from Mississippi State University. He earned his specialist degree in education leadership from MSU.
McDonnall has served as assistant principal at SHS since 2007. He’s spent all but three of his 22 years in education at Starkville High School. One of the first students he taught was Harris.
“Mr. McDonnall has always understood high school students,” Harris said.
“SHS is my home, and the Jacket nation is my family,” McDonnall said. “This is a really special opportunity for me, and I’m grateful to the school board and administration for their confidence in me.”