The Starkville School District board of trustees hired a new head football coach Tuesday night.
By unanimous consent, the board hired Jamie Mitchell as the high school”s new head football coach. Mitchell will begin July 1 and will also hold a half-time teaching position. His pay was set at $72,500 and includes compensation for his teaching, where he has about 20 years of experience.
In February, the board hired former Starkville High School principal Stan Miller as the district”s athletic director. Miller, a retired state employee, recommended Mitchell for the top football job.
“We were all in agreement that this man was right for Starkville,” Miller said of the search committee”s recommendation.
The search committee talked to 27 candidates and interviewed eight for the position, Miller noted. Mitchell comes to Starkville from Fulton in Itawamba County, but he also coached at Ripley, Olive Branch and Charleston.
“Every time he moved into a program, it was losing and he turned it around,” Miller said, adding Mitchell has an overall 114-42 win-loss record.
“This man is a proven winner — a mover and a shaker,” Miller said. “He”ll tell you any day Starkville will win another state championship.”
New officers
Officials also chose a new board president for the Starkville school board in the short-staffed meeting.
The Starkville mayor and Board of Aldermen have yet to agree on a replacement for Walter Taylor, who retired last month after 10 years on the school board. The temporarily four-member board chose Bill Weeks to be the next president.
Pickett Wilson was elected as vice president, Keith Coble as secretary and Eddie Myles as assistant secretary. The Starkville Board of Aldermen”s meeting was cut short last night by the fire that destroyed three buildings in Crossgates Apartments on Stark Road in west Starkville. The board was expected to attempt an override of the mayoral veto of the appointment of Susan Tomlinson to the school board. Mayor Parker Wiseman wants the board to reflect the school district, which is 60-percent black. The addition of Tomlinson to the school board would make it 80-percent white.
The school board handled several other matters of mostly routine business before discussing budget matters and changes that will be made districtwide as bond-issue construction nears completion over the summer. Citizens passed a $26 million bond issue in 2007 for renovation and expansion of school buildings.
The board went into closed session to complete Superintendent Judy Couey”s annual evaluation.
They will meet again at 6 p.m. May 4 in the Greensboro Center.
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