Seven Madison County educators are taking on new principal roles. See where they are

Charlie Drape, Mississippi Clarion-Ledger
·2 min read
Mannsdale Upper Elementary School fourth-grade students, seen here in a file photo earlier this month, will be among students at several Madison County Schools who will have new principals when the school year starts Aug. 3.
Mannsdale Upper Elementary School fourth-grade students, seen here in a file photo earlier this month, will be among students at several Madison County Schools who will have new principals when the school year starts Aug. 3.

Madison County students are set to report for the first day of school on Aug. 3, but they won't be the only ones to have a "first day" of sorts.

Seven principals will be starting at new schools in Madison County for the 2023-2024 school year. Two of those principals have been reassigned.

Principals moving include Debra Houghton, who will be moving from Mannsdale Upper Elementary to become principal at Madison Crossing Elementary. Also, Cody Zumbro will be moving from a role at Madison Career and Technical Center to become the new principal at Germantown High School.

Replacing Houghton at Mannsdale Upper Elementary, which serves grades three through five in the western Germantown Zone, is Nicole Cockrell. She has served for the past six years as Mannsdale's assistant principal and the previous three years as the school’s literacy specialist.

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Replacing Zumbro at Madison Career and Technical Center is Nason Lollar, who has over two decades of experience in education as a classroom teacher, coach and administrator. He will oversee the career and technical programs offered at the school to high school students in Madison County Schools.

Other new principals include Ranata Johnson, who will be taking on the role at Luther Branson Elementary where she served for seven years as the school's instructional specialist. Most recently she worked as the English and language arts curriculum lead for Jackson Public Schools and a humanities implementation leader for curriculum developer Great Minds.

Brittany Hammett will become the new principal of Madison Avenue Upper Elementary, where she previously worked as the school's lead fifth-grade teacher. Hammett is moving from her role as assistant principal at Madison Middle School.

Lastly, the new principal at Academic Options Center is Jason Young. He is joining Madison County Schools from Hazlehurst City Schools, where he served as principal of Hazlehurst High School. In 2020-2021, he was recognized as the district’s administrator of the year.

Also several people were shifted into new leadership roles for the next school year at Madison County School's central office:

  • Austin Brown, assistant superintendent

  • Wesley Quick, director of student affairs

  • Jessica Smith, director of federal programs

  • Capucine Robinson, director of elementary services

Contact Charlie Drape at cdrape@gannett.com or on Twitter @CharlesDrape

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Madison County MS Schools has 7 new principals this coming school year