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Supervisors appoint Wayne Barnett to school board
Published Thursday, June 11, 2009
NATCHEZ — Wayne Barnett has been just about everything in the Natchez-Adams School District. As of Wednesday, he can add school board member to his résumé.
The Adams County Board of Supervisors appointed Barnett to fill the slot vacated in March when Kenneth Taylor’s term ended.
Barnett said he was glad to hear of the appointment, and he has one agenda — to improve education and educational opportunities in Natchez.
“At one time, any way you rated a school, Natchez was on top, and we need to get back to that,” Barnett said. “I think every board member has that in mind, and I am glad to be joining them to work for the good of the boys and girls of Adams County.”
Before he retired, Barnett served as a teacher; an assistant principal a co-principal at Natchez High School during integration; a principal at both Natchez Middle School and Natchez High; curriculum coordinator for secondary schools; director of student activities and safety; and director of operations.
“I have a lot of experience, and I worked under some great people, and I also worked alongside a lot of great people,” he said. “I learned a little bit from every one of those people.”
Barnett said his experience as a co-principal at Natchez High will be particularly useful when working with the board.
“When you have five people who were supposedly principal, you had to work together, and to have success in a school district you are going to have to work together,” he said.
Along with improving education, Barnett said he has another goal, to improve the perception of public education in Natchez.
“The Natchez school district has a lot of good, hardworking people working for them today,” he said.
“The only kind of language we need to speak today is positive language.”
Barnett was one of eight candidates the supervisors interviewed for the position.
Comments
Posted by generoberts (anonymous) on June 11, 2009 at 1:06 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Good call Natchez.
Posted by thoughtfulobserver (anonymous) on June 11, 2009 at 1:08 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I think that the school board will be somewhat improved by Mr. Barnett's appointment. Now if we could appoint replacements for the rest of the bunch.
Posted by msubulldog (anonymous) on June 11, 2009 at 4:24 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Great choice. The board can levy taxes therefore they should be elected.
Posted by OldGrandDad (anonymous) on June 11, 2009 at 7:15 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Thank you Supervisors for a very good choice.
Posted by Torch (anonymous) on June 11, 2009 at 7:38 a.m. (Suggest removal)
If you want to look at when the schools started declining is when they did away with neighborhood schools. If you want to fix the problem in Natchez, go back to neighborhood schools. No one has a sense of pride in their school because they are only there a couple of years. Back when we had neighborhood schools a child went from K-9. Everyone knows that the schools started declining at this point. PUT IT BACK THE WAY IT WAS! NO-BRAINER! Maybe with Mr. Barnett's past experience in this area he might help return it the way it was.
Posted by headchick (anonymous) on June 11, 2009 at 8:34 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Congratulations, Dr. Barnett! And, well done, BOS, an EXCELLENT choice! Dr. Barnett will not only bring some school experience to the Board but also a fair mind with knowledge about what is being presented!
Posted by ntz143 (anonymous) on June 11, 2009 at 8:38 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Finally, the BOS makes a decision that makes sense!! What a great choice. Dr. Barnett is aware of all the great things about the district and what's holding it back...now maybe that he is sitting on the opposite side of the table, he, along with Mrs. Newsome and Dr. Wright can start to make positive changes for the district.
Posted by readingthepaper (anonymous) on June 11, 2009 at 9:02 a.m. (Suggest removal)
YEAH! YEAH! YEAH! Very happy with Dr. Barnett's appointment!
Posted by destiny (anonymous) on June 11, 2009 at 10:25 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Congrats !!!!! The best choice.
Posted by Iwonder2 (anonymous) on June 11, 2009 at 11:03 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Congratulations Mr. Barnett! Thank you for giving of your time and expertise to make a difference in our school system.
Torch, I very much agree with you. The answer to turning our school system around is to bring back neighborhood schools. It would help to return a sense of pride and also a sense of belonging to our schools. It would also help in the training of special needs or behavior problems students.
Currently, a student is at one campus for a couple of years. If there is a special needs or behavior problem student, by the time a teacher or principal bonds with that student and starts to make a difference, they move on to another set of teachers and principals to start over again. I feel that a bigger difference could be made in these childrens lives if a teacher or principal has 9 years with that student. Even with children who are not problem students, if a teacher is able to see a student progress through the years, it helps them to see the fruits of their labor and dedication.
Mr. Barnett is right, we do have some really good, hardworking people in our school system. I have served on both West Primary and McLaurn PTA in the past and had the opportunity to work closely with the faculty at these two schools. They are very caring, dedicated and professional.
Returning to a neighborhood school system will unify our principals, teachers and parents into a family unit who can more effectively work together in educating our children in Adams County.
Posted by ace6593 (anonymous) on June 11, 2009 at 12:28 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Her five states were...
State of Complacency
State of Delusion
State of Confusion
State of Denial
State of Stupidity
Posted by minnae (anonymous) on June 11, 2009 at 6:32 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Excellent choice!
Posted by freedom42 (anonymous) on June 11, 2009 at 7:38 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I believe you tim. I have had similar experiences with kids in scouts and sunday school. When my husband finished college in 1971 (he has a degree in Industrial Arts and Education) he did student teaching in the Hattiesburg public schools. Now remember this was as far back as the 70's, but when he gave a test he had prepared and gone over each question with the students before the test, only 4 out of 60 kids passed the test. Then his instructor told him he HAD to grade on a curve because they could NOT fail that many students. He has never taught another day in his life. So with such low expections, how can we expect our students to succeed in anything?
Posted by sideline (anonymous) on June 12, 2009 at 12:11 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Very good choice. Should have been there a long time ago. Now lets get rid of Edney.
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