This week, we’ll visit with newly retired South Side High School principal Anita Tucker to reflect on her time in the district as a student-athlete, teacher, and administrator. We’ll also find out what the future holds for South Side as Dr. Shari Baldwin takes over after serving as assistant principal for several years. Mrs. Tucker has been associated with the school for 41 years: as a student at the junior high and the high school; as a teacher at the junior high and later as a teacher and coach at the high school. For the past 13 years, however, Anita has been the head principal. She succeeded Jimmy Arnold, who led in that position from 1993-2011.

Superintendent Marlon King and our school board continue to move with a unified purpose to complete capital improvements scheduled in the CommUNITY Project.

Those improvements include: 

• Malesus STEM Innovation Center, which opened in August. 
• A multipurpose artificial turf field and track and field facility adjacent to historic Oman Arena, which is set to open during the 2025-2026 school year.
• And, the construction of a Prek-8 school to replace Pope Elementary in northwest Jackson that’s been standing in its current location since 1949; The new Pope School is scheduled to open in August.

And that is where we find the theme of today’s episode. Tracey Vowell, principal of Pope School, joins us to discuss the move to the new campus. Ebony Pugh - school counselor and Kaitlyn Tidwell - school counselor

In this episode of For the District, we shine a spotlight on the dedicated coaches behind the Greenpower Racing teams from Jackson-Madison County Schools. Hear how educators from Community Montessori, North Parkway, Rose Hill, Jackson Academic, Northeast, and Malesus helped guide their students through a season of engineering, teamwork, and perseverance—culminating in impressive first-place victories for Jackson Academic STEAM Academy and Malesus STEM Innovation Center at the prestigious Talladega Invitational.