Phenix City principal resigning for job at Auburn University-Montgomery

Lakewood Primary School will have a new principal next school year.

Jana Sparks is resigning, effective June 30, to take a position with Auburn University-Montgomery, Phenix City Schools superintendent Randy Wilkes announced Thursday.

Sparks has been Lakewood Primary’s only principal since the school opened in 2012, serving approximately 550 students in grades K-2. Her other positions in the school system have been as a gifted education teacher at Phenix City Intermediate School in 2003 and as an assistant principal at three schools: South Girard School in 2004, Ridgecrest Elementary School from 2005-10 and Lakewood Elementary School in 2011.

After the Phenix City Board of Education meeting Thursday night, Wilkes told the Ledger-Enquirer that Sparks “has done a terrific job for us.”

Wilkes praised Sparks for her “tremendous innovation, tremendous organizational skills, high level of professionalism. She has a family-type environment there, and she works extremely well with the teachers, with the students, with the parents, with employees of Phenix City Schools and the community. She will be missed tremendously.”

The job opening will be posted online Friday at the Teach in Alabama portal, Wilkes said.

“We’ll probably bring somebody on effective July 1,” he said, “but we hope to let people know a lot sooner than that.”

Asked whether he expects any other principal changes before next school year, Wilkes said no and added with a laugh, “I didn’t expect that one.”

In a phone interview Thursday night, Sparks told the Ledger-Enquirer she earned her doctorate in education from Valdosta State University last year to qualify her for her dream job.

“I’ve always wanted to go to the collegiate level,” she said, “and this was my opportunity.”

Sparks will be an assistant professor in AUM’s College of Education, teaching graduate courses to educators pursuing their master’s or specialist’s degrees to become administrators.

“I’m very thankful for everything Phenix City Schools has done for me,” she said. “It’s been a fantastic experience. ... I will truly miss the school district. This was a hard decision, but it was an opportunity I could not pass up.”

This story was originally published April 27, 2017 at 8:09 PM with the headline "Phenix City principal resigning for job at Auburn University-Montgomery."