Parish named next Neelyville superintendent

Hillview Assistant Principal Debra Parish has been selected to fill the role as the Neelyville R-IV superintendent beginning July 1.

Parish

“I am elated, blessed and very humbled to be able to serve the district as superintendent,” Parish said. “My number one goal is to be truly a servant leader.”

The Board of Education accepted current Superintendent Brad Hagood’s resignation during the December meeting. After 24 years in the district, Hagood has accepted a position with the Doniphan School District as superintendent.

Parish said being involved in all aspects of the district, she knows she can take the helm and continue on the path of high achievement scores and providing a quality education to all the students of the district.

“We are elated to have recently learned our APR is 100 percent,” she said. “While you can’t go any higher, there are always areas that can be improved.”

While Parish said she has no immediate plans to incorporate new changes, as the district is doing well, she has set several goals for herself.

“As the district instructional leader, my goal is to provide quality professional development and modeling for my faculty,” she said.

Parish would also like to explore the potential of proposing another bond issue before voters so the district can provide more adequate facilities for the students.

“I want to work with the community to provide a more adequate facility for our students so they can be as successful as possible,” she said. “They are our future leaders.”

One of the greatest challenges Parish has found in education is the legacy left from predecessors.

Parish said she will work to continue to maintain or improve the district’s fund balance.

“Mr. Hagood did a superb job in building the fund balance up so if there was some sort of crisis situation, we would have money available for that,” she said.

With the recent announcement of her new role, Parish said she is looking forward to being back in a position where she can be more involved with all the students, faculty and staff of the district.

After 29 years with the Neelyville R-IV School District, Parish has served on each campus in the district and trails only Food Program Director and Central Office Secretary Jenny Blackman, as the longest serving district employee.

“I have been on every campus and it’s hard to say which I enjoyed the most,” Parish said. “I have thoroughly enjoyed and been blessed in every position I have held at Neelyville R-IV and this is an opportunity to be able to work hard to make a positive difference for all the students, faculty and staff.”

Parish said she can recall the moment she decided to enter education as a young adult.

She was attending a family member’s elementary school music program and was amazed by all the farm themed props and music.

“I remember thinking I have to got get into this,” she said.

She was also heavily influenced by her aunt, Annette Atwell Epps, to become a teacher.

Epps, also a Neelyville graduate, taught kindergarten for over 30 years in Missouri, Arkansas and Florida.

Parish has been in education for 32 years, teaching three years in Arkansas before returning to her alma mater to take the place of her own third grade teacher, Ruth Gray, in 1990. She then served as the elementary counselor from 1998 to 1999 before being recruited to serve as high school counselor in 2000. Parish then went to Hillview Elementary to serve as assistant principal in 2012 until now.

“I will have to go to Hillview every once in awhile to get a fix by reading a story or a little hug or something,” she said. “I’m going to miss those little guys.”