MONTICELLO — A Crystal Springs educator has named to lead thestudents of Lawrence County High School.

Daryl J. Scoggin, who has served as the principal of CrystalSprings High School since 2000, has been selected to replace LCHSPrincipal Dr. L.C. Firle, who announced his retirement earlier thisyear. Firle has been principal there for nine years, since1995.

Scoggin will begin his duties July 1.

“We are pleased to make this announcement and look forward toMr. Scoggin being on board here in Lawrence County,” RussellCaudill, superintendent of the Lawrence County School District,said Tuesday.

Scoggin, 47, has 23 years of experience in the education fieldand has seven years in administration. Prior to being named asprincipal of CSHS in 2000, he served as elementary and high schoolprincipal at Wesson Attendance Center for three years and asassistant principal at Provine High School in Jackson for oneyear.

“Over the last seven years, while serving as assistant principaland principal, I have been fortunate to work with some tremendousprofessional educators,” he said. “In each of the situations, wewere able to make improvements in different areas of theschool.”

At Provine, he said, his focus was on discipline andattendance.

“We installed security cameras, which were monitored in myoffice and greatly increased our visibility on campus,” Scogginsaid. “Throughout the year I spent at Provine, we cut our violentdiscipline referrals by 75 percent and our attendance increased byabout 10 percent.”

Standardized Test scores in Wesson saw an increase in grades 3through 10 during Scoggin’s three years there, and ACT results alsoincreased.

He also helped devise a remedial program for subject areatesting. Students who did not pass were required to attend six,four hour sessions on Saturdays to improve in the targeted subjectareas.

At Crystal Springs, Scoggin implemented a journalism class andschool newspaper in 2000 as part of a major emphasis on writing.Writing was instituted as a core focus throughout the curriculumfrom journals, to articles to research papers by 2001.

He also instituted the “Principal’s Advisory Committee.” Thecommittee met every other week to discuss the needs of the schooland were used to revise the student and teacher handbooks as wellas curriculum alignment. At least one teacher from each subjectarea was elected to the committee by their peers, which gave therest of the faculty the feeling that they had a voice in thedecision-making process.

An Air Force ROTC program was added to the school in 2000.

“In each of the schools I have served, there have been manygreat accomplishments, but in no way could I take sole credit forthese things,” Scoggin said.

He said the goal of every educator should be to equip studentswith the knowledge they need to succeed, whether the studentintends to advance to college or enter the workforce immediatelyafter high school.

“I believe very strongly that all students can achieve success,”Scoggin said. “Success is not the same for every individual. It isup to us as the educator to find the ways to teach them so they canexperience their success. I do not believe that every child isbound for college, therefore it is our responsibility to help thembecome productive citizens in our society.”

It requires commitment and dedication, he said.

“Teaching young people takes much patience and time,” he said.”As a teacher we much be willing to give our all if we are to beentrusted with the lives, hearts and minds of children.”

His goal for LCHS, he said, is to improve it to a Level 5school. He was excited about the level of county and communitysupport the school has and said that was a major componentnecessary for improvement.

“There’s no reason it can’t be a Level 5 school,” Scoggin said.”It’ll just take some work to get it there. We’ll do what it takesto get there.”

Scoggin and his wife, Nora, are presently searching for a homein Lawrence County. Scoggin has three children, Whit, 19; Kate, 18;and Emilee, 13; and two stepchildren, Stephen, 18, and Kathrin,13.