At its recent board of trustees meeting, Lexington County School District One approved nine full-time assistant principals as a supplemental contingency to the 2025-26 general fund operating budget.

The contingency funding, which is the request to allocate a specific amount of funds to cover needs, will be used for three middle schools, five high schools and one elementary school. This request is to ensure the district has time to hire applicants before contract deadlines. 

“If we feel it’s ultimately going to be approved in the final budget, we would like to attach contingency funding on it now,” Superintendent-elect Keith Price said. “This is so we have the best chance possible for getting the best applicants possible.”

Price informed the board that there are hiring deadlines and contracts due in the upcoming weeks. If the district were to wait until June to start moving forward with these assistant principal positions, they would look for those who are not under a contract. 

At a board meeting earlier this month, David Dixon, Gilbert High School principal, spoke to board members about the need for assistant principals, stating he, along with other principals, often deal with the operational side of things, instead of being the instructional leader.

Price said that the number one request both middle school and high school principals have is to add assistant principals. He also added that during listening sessions, middle school teachers also said assistant principals would help with the workload. 

The assistant principals would help lighten the discipline load, attend IEP/504 meetings, conduct teacher evaluations and more. The district is hopeful this will also help increase the number of classroom observations and coaching opportunities. 

“I’m in support of this motion because I feel confident that the people we have as our educational leaders in our buildings will use those resources to the fullest extent,” board member Chris Rice said. 

A performance metric will be presented to school board members throughout the year.

“I do see the value of adding these positions now rather than later because it will give them a chance to get their feet wet over the summer and attend meetings,” board member Kathryn McCown said. “I’m looking forward to seeing the change they bring, and hopefully we can do this for our other schools at one point.”

The next board meeting will be on Tuesday, May 20, at 6 p.m., at Central Services Building 1, located at 100 Tarrar Springs Rd.