Shelby County Schools is turning to a veteran principal with school turnaround experience to take the helm of Trezevant High School, where its last leader unearthed grading irregularities that have shaken the entire district.
Corey Kelly just finished his fourth year as principal at Sherwood Middle School. Both Sherwood Middle and Trezevant High are part of the Innovation Zone, the district’s intense program for improving low-performing schools.
Kelly officially starts at Trezevant on July 31, but already has begun work at the Frayser school, district spokeswoman Kristin Tallent said Friday. She called Kelly a “dynamic leader.”
He follows Ronnie Mackin, who became Trezevant’s principal last August and soon after discovered discrepancies between some student report cards and transcripts. Mackin reported the irregularities to district administrators, who hired an independent firm this spring to review transcripts from all of high schools in the system for the last four years. That review is ongoing.
Trezevant has been in the news for years, distinguishing itself both for its championship-winning football program and its “priority school” status for test scores in the state’s bottom 5 percent.
In 2014, the school was moved to the district’s iZone in an effort to boost academic performance. This year, Superintendent Dorsey Hopson named Trezevant one of 14 “critical focus” schools receiving additional investments in an effort to save them from closure.
Before taking the top job at Sherwood Middle, Kelly was principal at Havenview Middle School for almost nine years and an assistant principal at A. Maceo Walker Middle and Georgia Avenue Elementary. He also taught for seven years at Hillcrest High.
Kelly was among dozens of statewide stakeholders chosen to collaborate last year with the State Department of Education to develop Tennessee’s new schools plan under the federal education law known as the Every Student Succeeds Act, or ESSA. Kelly’s working group focused on accountability.