2nd NHS official resigns
Published 12:41 am Saturday, October 15, 2011
The assistant principal of Northside High School has resigned.
The resignation of Mary Beth Jackson took effect Wednesday.
Jackson’s departure follows the resignation of principal Donna Moore, who resigned effective Oct. 6.
Jackson began her tenure as assistant principal of NHS on Aug. 21, 2006, according to public records. She started her employment with the county’s public schools system on Aug. 15, 1994.
The reasons for the resignations were not made public.
On Friday, Don Phipps, superintendent of Beaufort County Schools, issued a statement on the issue.
“In light of the recent resignations at Northside High School, I want to dispel rumors and speculation that the resignations resulted from misconduct related to NHS test scores,” Phipps said. “The progress that Northside High has made in the areas of student achievement, graduation rate, and dropout rate is the result of the hard work of the staff and students at Northside High School. Any rumor or speculation otherwise unfairly diminishes the hard work of all involved. Northside High School achieved School of Distinction in 2010-2011 based on genuine student performance and those involved deserve to feel proud and honored to have reached this level.”
In a recent interview, Cindy Winstead, a member of the Beaufort County Board of Education, also referred to improved test scores at NHS.
“They’ve done a lot of growth in the past few years under Donna’s leadership,” Winstead said last week. “Their scores have improved and I’m proud of the progress they’ve made, and I hope that whoever the new leader is down there that they’ll continue in that vein to keep the test scores up and keep the school growing. I appreciate (Moore’s) service at Northside.”
Also last week, John Conway, assistant superintendent of Beaufort County Schools, said system officials hoped to name the former principal’s replacement by the end of this month.