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Last Tuesday, January 2, was a very special day for me. I was invited to travel to Southaven, and participate in the ribbon-cutting ceremony of the new Southaven High School.
In April, 1971, I opened the first Southaven High School as their first principal. This earned me the invitation to participate in the opening of the new state-of-the-arts building just down the street from the old building. The beautiful and very serviceable building carries a price tag of $23.7 million dollars. The principal of the school, Jeff Gilder whose father served as pastor of the Pittsboro Baptist Church in Calhoun County stated that the huge building was perfectly laid out so that all academic courses are in one side of the building and so-called extra-curricular activities such as band, the library, cafeteria, etc. were located on the other side of the building.
Jeff is a young man and told me he left Bruce High School when he was in the tenth grade. I told Jeff that it was good he was young because some of us more seasoned educators could not make it through the building once during the day. The architect for the building graduated from Southaven High School in 1974 and had to be proud of the new facility.
The program began with The Southaven Police Department presenting the Colors. The Police Department is headed by Chief Tom Long, another product of DeSoto County Schools and a member of my 7th grade English Class consisting of 44 boys! I told Tommy that I simply did not know how we made it through the class but we did have a good class. In that class was also the Mayor of the City of Horn Lake and others who now serve as officials of DeSoto County.
Greg Davis, Mayor of the City of Southaven, now the fifth largest city in Mississippi, spoke to those assembled. Greg is also a graduate of Southaven High. His mother was my secretary and office manager while I was principal and continues to work at the school as bookkeeper. Greg was the chief negotiator in securing the land for the school which some years back belonged to the Davis family. Greg stated that exactly one day from the day the school district announced the location of the new Southaven High School facility that a developer announced the start of a 1,500-home subdivision with very nice homes. Mayor Davis said economic development always followed where good education was present. Southaven High School has the top, a 5 rating by the State Department of Education.
After a great morning I motored down I-55 and made it back to Pittsboro by 1:30 P.M. to meet Judge Henry Lackey to take the oath as a member of the Calhoun County School Board. I gladly took the oath of office with the determination to do everything I can to make Calhoun County the kind of schools that will be attractive to economic development. If we expect our young people to get an education and stay in our county then we must provide good jobs and good housing. Education is the key to doing this.
Thanks for reading this column.
(Billy McCord is a retired school administrator and an elder in the United Methodist Church. He is pastor of the Pittsboro and Shady Grove UM Churches in Calhoun County. He is a member of the Calhoun County School Board. Contact him at: billymc@tycom.net)
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