NATCHEZ — The regime is all new at Robert Lewis Middle School this year, and the new faces want community support.

Principal Sekufel Lewanika, and assistant principals Pete Peters and Levi Robinson started working for the Natchez-Adams School District in mid-July. They are beginning to gel as a team, Lewanika said, and by next week they’ll be ready for students.

The staff replaces interim Principal Larry Hooper and interim assistant Marilyn Turner. Hooper is no longer working for the district, and Turner has returned to her previous role as parent-center coordinator.

The close of the 2007 school year saw a number of challenges at RLMS, including a student protest involving police, but Superintendent Anthony Morris said the new staff is well qualified to lead the school into the future.

“(Lewanika) understands the challenges of middle school and the challenges of getting students stabilized,” Morris said.

Lewanika, a native of Zamiba, Africa, was most recently a head administrator at The Piney Woods School in Mississippi. He held several titles including assistant principal, principal, headmaster and director of academics for 20 years at the private boarding school. Piney Woods currently has grades nine through 12.

Though Piney Woods is sometimes considered a school aimed at students with discipline problems, Lewanika said that was a misconception.

Lewanika has been in the United States since 1974 and graduated from Jackson State University.

Lewanika said his focus for the coming year at RLMS will be bringing students to a higher academic level. But to do that, he needs support, he said.

“We are going to go the community and get the chance to meet them, ask for their help,” he said. “Everybody has to get involved. If part of the process is missing we will not be going to the same goal.”

Lewanika said the problems of last year won’t weigh the school down this year.

“That was last year,” he said. “We now have a motto hanging in front of the school — Today is an opportunity to learn.”

He said open communication between students and administrators will lead to success.

Peters, an Air Force veteran, echoed Lewanika’s goals.

“We are all aggressive,” Peters said of the new RLMS staff. “I think we are just what the doctor ordered.”

Peters was in the military for more than 29 years before going on to eventually lead the ROTC program at the high school in Bay St. Louis.

Peters is a graduate of William Carey College and the University of Phoenix.

Robinson was most recently a high school teacher with the Jackson Public Schools.

Both assistant principals are stepping into their first K-12 education administrative job.

Since the school’s administrative staff is all new to the district, Morris said central office personnel will be heavily involved in the first few months of school. But he’s confident the new team will get the job done, he said.

“You really have to had been in on the interview process to see the strength these gentlemen bring to the table,” Morris said. “That really relieves a lot of our anxieties of how things will run at the school.”

Morris said he opted to hire two assistants this year, a structure different than the one in place at the school last year. One principal and two assistants was standard operating procedure, he said. Last year then-Principal Bettye Bell requested one assistant and two lead teachers.