Harris plans to closely monitor teachers

By By Georgia E. Frye / staff writer
August 3, 2003
Meridian High School's new principal said he plans to closely monitor his faculty, dropping in on their classes 10 times each during the first weeks of the new school year.
Harris returned to Meridian High on July 22 as principal a position he left in 1988 to become deputy superintendent of the Meridian Public School District.
Two years later, in 1990, Harris left Meridian public schools and headed to Jackson where he became deputy superintendent of the Mississippi Department of Education.
Harris said he has many things he wants to do at Meridian High School; mainly, he said, he wants to be a hands-on principal. He also said principals should know what is happening in the classroom.
Harris said one of his long term goals is to improve student achievement on tests like the ACT, formerly known as the American College Testing Program, and the SAT, formally called the Scholastic Aptitude Test.
Both are used as college entrance exams.
He said he also wants to make sure the curriculum at Meridian High School, elementary schools and middle and junior high schools is in-line with statewide standardized tests.
Teachers shouldn't have to take time from classroom work to prep students for the standardized test if subjects on that exam already were covered in other daily classroom lessons, he said.