Dr. Marty Conner, left, and Janice Hyatt
At its meeting on Monday evening, the Board of Trustees approved four administrative hires including new principals for South Pointe High School and Richmond Drive Elementary School.
At South Pointe, Dr. Marty Conner will replace Dr. Al Leonard who announced last month that he will be retiring at the end of the school year after more than 30 years in Rock Hill Schools.
Conner is no stranger to Rock Hill and York County. From 2003 to 2006, he served as an assistant principal at Rawlinson Road Middle School before moving to Fort Mill School District where he led a redevelopment effort to establish an alternative program for at-risk students before being named the first principal of Banks Trail Middle School in 2009. He later spent two years in Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools where he oversaw the Northeast and Central Learning Communities. Since 2015, Dr. Conner has served as the associate superintendent of curriculum and instruction at Orangeburg Consolidated School District Three in Holly Hill, S.C. At Orangeburg, he provided leadership, management, guidance and coordination in all areas of the district’s academics, curriculum and instruction.
He has a bachelor’s degree from Norfolk State University, a Master’s degree from George Washington University, and holds his education specialist and doctorate degrees from South Carolina State University. Dr. Conner begins his principalship at South Pointe on July 1.
At Richmond Drive, Janice Hyatt replaces Pat Maness who earlier this year was named the principal of Cherry Park Elementary School of Language Immersion, the district’s newest elementary school set to open in January 2019.
Like Conner, Hyatt is no stranger to the Rock Hill or Richmond Drive Elementary community. She has worked in Rock Hill Schools for the past 21 years. She began her career as a 5th grade teacher at Dora Jones-Gayle Elementary School in Chester, S.C. After 8 years in Chester, she taught 1st and 5th grades at Richmond Drive before becoming a program teacher at Belleview Elementary. Since 2015, she has been an assistant principal at York Road Elementary.
She was twice named her school’s teacher of the year, and, in 1998, was named the Chester County School District teacher of the year. Hyatt is a National Board Certified Teacher and holds both her undergraduate and graduate degrees from Winthrop University. She begins her new position on July 1.
Additional administrative appointments include Jessica Wren being named as an interim assistant principal at Rock Hill High School and Tammie Welch, RDN, LDN, being hired as the district’s food service contract administrator.
Wren, who has been a Spanish teacher in Rock Hill Schools since 2013, replaces Stephen Knight who will be taking military leave. Wren presently teaches level one and two Spanish at Northwestern High School and serves on the district world language leadership team. In 2014, while at Dutchman Creek Middle School, she was a finalist for the South Carolina Spanish Teacher of the Year award.
Wren, who holds degrees from Winthrop University, University of Southern California and Arkansas State University, will begin her new position on August 1.
Welch, a registered dietitian nutritionist and licensed dietitian, joins Rock Hill Schools next month and will oversee the district’s food services department and the contract with Southwest Foodservice Excellence. Since 2011, she has served as an assistant supervisor and dietitian in the Fort Mill School District student nutrition department.
If interested in applying for current and future vacancies in Rock Hill Schools, please visit www.rock-hill.k12.sc.us/jobs.