School Board Appoints Social And Emotional Learning Leader

CHEROKEE COUNTY, GA — A longtime Cherokee County Schools leader will head up the district's new Social and Emotional Learning initiative.

Debra Murdock, the former Principal of Cherokee High School and Georgia High School Principal of the Year, who most recently has served as the School Operations’ executive director overseeing middle and high schools, will take on the newly created role focused on developing new ways to better support students’ and employees’ emotional and mental health and well-being.

“Debbie grew up here, raised her own family here, and loves every child in our schools as if they’re all her own,” Superintendent of Schools Brian Hightower said. “She taught hundreds of students before advancing to serve as an assistant principal and then Principal and then CCSD leader -- and every time she was promoted, we heard complaints from the students and families who didn’t want her to leave them. In this new role, she will be focused again on our students and how we can better care for them.”

This appointment is the first step in adopting recommendations of the Superintendent’s new Ad Hoc Committee studying Social and Emotional Learning. The Committee of teachers, administrators and school counselors, nurses and psychologists developed numerous recommendations to improve supports for students and staff, which Hightower has committed to phasing in for CCSD.

This new initiative came from the Cherokee County School Board on June 20 unanimously approving the Superintendent's proposed budget for next school year.

More will be spent on assisting students' academic and emotional needs beginning with this budget, including the hiring of CCSD's first two mental health counselors. This investment is in line with the findings of the Superintendent's first Ad Hoc Committee studying Social and Emotional Learning (SEL), a national movement in education to ensure the health and well-being of students and school employees.

Superintendent of Schools Dr. Brian V. Hightower reviewed the Committee's report, which is online here, with the School Board during the meeting.

Hightower praised the Committee, which was made up of teachers, administrators and school counselors, nurses and psychologists, for its dedication, and he committed to phasing in its recommendations, with work already underway on first implementation steps. The recommendations are numerous, with both specific and broad goals ranging from identifying a staff person to lead these initiatives to redefining counselor responsibilities to allow more focus on SEL counseling.

While CCSD wants every student to excel academically at the highest level possible, Hightower said it's clear that stress related to school can have detrimental effects on students' health and well-being.

"We want them to be challenged, but we also want them to be healthy," he said, noting the alarming nationwide trends in rising levels of student anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts, which are triggered by numerous factors in addition to school. "We know this isn't just on us, but we just can't put our heads in the sand. We need to work together as a District and a School Board to take good care of our kids."

As a result of Murdock’s appointment, Creekview High School Principal Mark Merges has been appointed to serve in her former role as the School Operations’ Executive Director of Administrative Leadership for middle and high schools. A 25-year educator, Merges has led Creekview HS since 2016, earning recognition as a finalist for Georgia High School Principal of the Year, and previously served as an assistant principal at Sequoyah HS and Dean Rusk MS.

Additionally, the board approved several new principal roles.

The Creekview High School Principal post will be filled by longtime educator Sue Zinkil, who most recently has served as Principal of neighboring Creekland Middle School. She previously led Teasley MS as its Principal, which she opened on its new campus and where she was named Georgia’s Middle School Principal of the Year.

Richie Carnes, who most recently served as assistant principal at Mill Creek Middle School, will lead Creekland Middle School as its new Principal. He brings 25 years of experience as an educator to the role, including as an assistant principal at Carmel ES and Indian Knoll ES and as a teacher at Cherokee HS.

Jillian Seibert, an assistant principal at Little River ES, has been tapped to serve in the Office of Curriculum & Instruction, with Holly Springs ES STEM Academy Assistant Principal John Hultquist moving to Little River. Rachel Wasserman, who previously has served as an assistant principal at Woodstock ES, will serve in that role at Holly Springs.