By Staff
We were saddened and dismayed to hear of Terrence Mixon's resignation as principal of Escambia County High School.
Though he was here only a year, he made a tremendous impact.
We don't use the words "tremendous impact" lightly.
Everyone at the school and in the community sang his praises – us included.
Mr. Mixon was the fourth principal in four years at the beleaguered school. Once again, the board of education will go through the process of looking for the right person for the job.
We thought Mr. Mixon was the right person. We still think so.
We understand his leaving because he felt he had no job security with this school board. Looking at Superintendent Dr. Margaret Breland-Bradley's treatment at the hands of the board, he felt his own future might be as precarious.
While we are saddened and dismayed, we are also angry.
We're angry that someone outside the school system, someone who has absolutely no business butting into the school system, has run a competent and intelligent man out of town.
No one will be able to do the job at ECHS or in any school in this city with someone using "strong arm" tactics to satisfy his own agenda, whatever that agenda might be.
Is it political? Is it a power play? Or is it just a game?
We don't know and frankly we don't care.
We do know that the kids on this end of the county have the lowest SAT scores in the county.
We also know the only two schools in the county that are in academic trouble are in Atmore.
Progress was being made at the high school.
Although the school had not moved from caution to clear status, enough improvement had been made to keep the school from dropping back to alert.
We thank Mr. Mixon for what he did here and the vision he had for our students.
We apologize to Mr. Mixon for the individual who made his job and his life here miserable.
We wish him all the success in the world at Williamson High School.
We know he will be successful.
We only wish it could have been here.