MCSD principal named finalist for Georgia Principal of the Year

Fort Middle School principal Sonja Matthews-Coaxum is one of six finalists for the Georgia Association of Secondary School Principals’ Principal of the Year award, the Muscogee County School District announced Monday.

Coaxum has served as the principal of Fort since 2007 and has been an educator for 26 years. She also was among the six state finalists for Principal of the Year in 2014.

Coaxum told the Ledger Enquirer in an email Monday night, “I am overjoyed, humbled, grateful and proud to be selected as a Principal of the Year Finalist. I truly believe it is due to the hard work of our students, teachers, staff members, parents and community partners. We are a family at Fort and we all pull together to help our students achieve. Our teachers go Above and Beyond the Call of Duty to educate our students focusing on the whole child and their individual needs. It is indeed an honor and privilege to work for Muscogee County School District under the leadership of Superintendent Dr. David Lewis, Regional Chief Dr. Ronald Wiggins and all of our central office support leaders. To be perfectly honest, all of my colleagues, every principal in our district is working extremely hard to ensure the success of all students. We are very fortunate to work for a district that invest so much in us, as Instructional Leaders to ensure that we are preparing our students, for a Full Option Graduation.”

MCSD superintendent David Lewis told the Ledger-Enquirer in an email Monday afternoon, “Principal Coaxum is a consummate professional educator. She is student-centered and sets high goals for herself and others with the expectation of attaining them through hard work and perseverance, as evidenced by her utilization of data to effectively monitor student and school-wide progress toward those goals. Furthermore, she is highly respected by students, parents and colleagues alike.”

The Principal of the Year program recognizes principals that excel in educational leadership, resolving complex problems, developing self and others, and community service, according to the news release.

“The finalists were selected from a large pool of applications,” GASSP executive director Melton Callahan said in the news release. “The application is an extensive review of the performance of their school based on data provided by the applicants. The finalists will go through an interview in Athens to determine the Georgia Principal of the Year.”

The Principal of the Year recognition program is sponsored by the National Association of Secondary School Principals, the Georgia Association of Secondary School Principals, and Association Member Benefit Advisor. The Georgia winner will represent the state in the competition for National Principal of the Year.

This story was originally published January 22, 2018 at 3:03 PM with the headline "MCSD principal named finalist for Georgia Principal of the Year."