Margie Pulley suddenly resigned Tuesday as the Greenwood schools’ superintendent.
Her last day will be Friday after nearly four decades with the district and the past four years as its leader.
The school board unanimously accepted the resignation during a special called meeting Tuesday afternoon. It will meet again at 5 p.m. today at the central office to name an interim head of the 2,800-student district.
School Board President George Ellis said the resignation came as a surprise.
“Dr. Pulley’s reason was it was just time to go,” he said. “In my personal opinion, she couldn’t have left the district in any better shape.”
He said Pulley said she had discussed it with her husband and family and had planned on retiring in June of this year but said she pushed it back because she wanted to make sure vacancies within the district were filled for this school year. Ellis said that there were more than 40 teacher vacancies and that they’ve all been filled now.
Ellis said the resignation had nothing to do with a controversy about Greenwood High football coach Clinton Gatewood allegedly verbally abusing players this week.
Pulley couldn’t be reached for comment this morning.
A Browning native, she started teaching at Greenwood High in 1974. She served as a teacher, assistant principal at Greenwood High, principal at Threadgill and assistant superintendent before becoming interim superintendent in July 2008 when Les Daniels retired. The school board took away the interim label in January 2009.
Pulley brought an authoritarian leadership style to the position along with a deep knowledge of state testing. Her oft-repeated slogan, which she insisted district employees repeat whenever they answered the phone, was “creating student success.”
The formula worked: The Greenwood district improved its state rating under Pulley, jumping from “At Risk of Failing” in 2009 to “Successful” in 2010. It maintained that level in 2011, and 2012 test results the state Department of Education released today indicate the district has continued its steady upward progress. The dropout rate has also continued to fall.
Pulley received a $146,249 salary, which was the seventh-highest in the state as of 2011.
Notice of the school board meeting held Tuesday was posted Monday on outside doors at the central office on Howard Street, Ellis said.
He said board members expected to handle routine personnel matters. But Ellis said he noticed an executive session on the agenda, and when Pulley stood up and began speaking during the closed session, he realized she was resigning.
“It caught everybody off guard. We didn’t see it coming,” Ellis said.
• Contact Charlie Smith at 581-7235 or csmith@gwcommonwealth.com.
