FARMINGTON -- Farmington School Board last week voted to hire a new junior high principal and a new assistant principal for Lynch Middle School.
Joe McClung, assistant principal of Woodland Junior High School in Fayetteville, will serve as principal for a new junior high school housed in the former high school building.
Farmington football coach and history teacher Tracy Sutton will move to Lynch to serve as assistant principal for that building. Julia Williams, principal of Ledbetter Intermediate, will move across campus to be middle school principal.
Farmington will have to make yet another decision for an administrator. Budd Smith, middle school assistant principal, submitted his resignation last week. He has accepted a position to be assistant principal for Grace Hill Elementary School in the Rogers School District.
The new hires are part of the Farmington School District's plan to reconfigure grades for several school buildings, beginning with the 2018-19 school year.
Ledbetter will close as a school for now. Fourth, fifth and sixth grades will be at Lynch Middle School. The district will still have a freshman academy program but it will be part of Farmington Junior High. The junior high will have seventh, eighth and ninth grades.
McClung and Sutton will fill administrator positions that became open with the retirement of two long-time principals. Bob Echols is retiring as principal of the Freshman Academy and Terry Lakey is retiring as Lynch principal.
Bryan Law, Farmington school superintendent, said the district received more than 30 applications for the junior high position. A committee of four teachers and four administrators interviewed seven top candidates over a two-day period.
"At the end of our deliberations, Joe McClung was the choice," Law said.
According to McClung's resume, he has served as assistant principal at Woodland Junior High since fall 2014 and before that served for two years as assistant principal at Leverett Elementary in Fayetteville.
He was a classroom teacher at Woodland from fall 2009 to spring 2012, and taught science, physical education, social studies, computer applications and was head cross country and track coach.
McClung has a bachelor of science degree in health and physical education from Arkansas Tech, a master of education in education leadership from the University of Arkansas, has his educational specialist degree in education leadership from Henderson State and a doctor of education in educational leadership from Arkansas Tech.
Sutton is a civics/economics teacher at the Freshman Academy and junior high head football coach. In his new position as assistant principal at the middle school, he will leave coaching to become a full-time administrator.
Williams said a search committee brought in two top candidates for the Lynch position and they both interviewed with 17 teachers. The other top candidate was a former Farmington teacher.
"I think they both had excellent interviews and both brought a lot to the table," Williams said.
She said Sutton was recommended for the position because of his experience and love for students.
"He has a heart for the community and a heart for these kids," Williams said.
According to his resume, Sutton started his teaching career as a teacher and coach in the Des Arc public schools from 1997-2000. He taught and coached at Greenland from 2000-2010.
He has been with Farmington since fall 2010 and has been involved with several supervisory roles at the Freshman Academy, including taking on the responsibilities of principal while the building principal was on medical leave.
Sutton also is responsible for discipline and attendance at the Freshman Academy and assists in daily administrative tasks with the school.
General News on 04/25/2018