Marshall County High School Principal Amy Waggoner introduced Donnie Heath as the Head Coach of the Marshall County soccer program in April. Waggoner will retire from her position as MCHS principal Oct. 1.
Marshall County High School Principal Amy Waggoner will call an end to her 32-year career in education, Oct. 1.
Waggoner, who served as MCHS assistant principal for one year before assuming the head principal’s position eight years ago, said it was something she had considered since both her own daughters had graduated. Coupled with looming changes and uncertainties surrounding state employee pensions, Waggoner said she was ready to move into that next step: retirement.
“I just feel comfortable; I feel that our assistant principals now are ready,” Waggoner said. “It’s a very strong team. … It’s just a good time. It’s a good time for my family, and it’s just something I wanted to do.”
The choice to leave after the school year had begun rather than at the end of the 2016-17 academic year was one she felt was better for those administrators, teachers and students as well. Waggoner said the school had initiated several new programs, including two new academies, which had been a great deal of work and planning to get rolling. It was only fair to stay and ensure everyone was comfortable in their new roles and all the “kinks” had been worked out before she stepped down.
“It just seemed like there were lots of things that were in place that were going the right direction,” Waggoner said. “Everybody’s started, everybody’s placed. And with the way that, you know, pension talk and so on, I just felt like it was a good time. I feel like I’m leaving it in a good place. … When somebody retires, you want to be able to retire on your own terms. … I felt like if I had retired at the end of the school year, there were so many new things that we had to put in place that would have been a much worse situation than getting it started the first nine weeks of school. We’ve had some time to work some of the kinks out, to see how things are going to go; to put the materials in place; to put the programs, for everybody to get their feet wet; for the kids to kind of understand what the programs were about. I just felt like that was better than leaving for somebody else to come in and try to implement all the new innovations.
“This is a big ship,” Waggoner added. “You know, when you have a school of almost 1,500 students, you have 85 teachers on staff. When you’re trying to make changes, those people have to know that you have their back. They have to know that there’s a strong leader in place. I could not leave with so much up in the air.”
Marshall County Schools Superintendent Trent Lovett said it would largely be the decision of the school’s Site Based Decision Making council – a panel composed of three teachers, two parents and himself – to select a new principal. Lovett said the council, which convenes this Friday, may choose to appoint an interim principal to fill out the year or advertise the position, among other options. Should the council elect to post the position, he said it was possible the Kentucky Department of Education could grant a waiver on the time required to post a position to expedite the process. Should the council determine to advertise the position now and hire a principal, the final decision is left to Lovett to confirm. Still, it won’t be a call made overnight.
“(Friday) will just be a brief, I mean it’s not going to be a big meeting,” Lovett said. “I’m just going to tell them the options that they have and then let them think about it. It’s just our initial meeting, because if they post and select a principal, then they have to be trained in principal selection and all that, and that’s going to take some time. We’ll have to post it for a little while, and if they choose that direction it’ll be a little longer process. … Since we’re in school already, we usually have to post a position 30 days, but … you could receive a waiver for this because it’s going to interrupt service if you don’t have that.”
Regardless, Waggoner said she expected the transition to be seamless. The transition in her own life may be somewhat difficult, however. Waggoner said though she’d known it was what she wanted, the fact she was retiring hadn’t really “hit” her just yet. In 32 years, she had done a little of everything, beginning her career at Jonathan Elementary School before moving on to Benton Middle School, where she remained until accepting the assistant principal’s position nine years ago.
Waggoner said watching her students grow into adults and become successful in their own right, and learning from them in turn had been one of the most enjoyable aspects of her job. Developing the relationships among coworkers, too, had made her time in the system a joy. They were things she would find most difficult to leave.
“My favorite memories are of the students that I’ve had,” she said. “And it’s so exciting to see them as adults. … I think so many times when adults you see a teacher, you think, ‘Oh, will they remember me or will they not?’ Most of the time they do. I still see those people as that student sitting in my classroom. … Teaching is a calling. Teaching is not a job, education it’s not a job. It’s a calling. And I felt like I have been called in every position that I have been in, and I have enjoyed every minute of it. That’s going to be hard, leaving the people and leaving the students. That’s what really keeps you, keeps you grounded I think.”
While she may be stepping away from the day-to-day, though, she won’t be gone altogether. Waggoner said she would still be involved in some capacity.
“I love all the school activities,” Waggoner said. “You know, I’ll still come to games and come to things we have here at the high school, because you know the high school is such a community place. It’s not just a school, it’s really a place fore everybody in our community. So, I will continue to do that and support that and the programs that we have.”
Lovett said it would be difficult to fill the role she left behind, but wished Waggoner luck in her endeavors.
“To do that job … and I know how hard that job is, I was over there; and to do it for nine years is really amazing,” Lovett said. “And I probably didn’t tell her enough how good of a job she was doing, because you grow to just expect it. And every year she’s done a great job. That job will wear on you, it’s tough. … It’s hard to get your mind around everything that is taking place in the building.
“She’s going to be missed by the faculty over there, the staff, the kids,” Lovett added. “They love her. She’s stern with them, but they appreciate that. Some of them need that. Sometimes it’s a tough love, but she’s there to baby them if she needs to, too. … I wish her the best.”