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The Lowndes County Board of Education has officially named Samita Jeter as acting superintendent for Lowndes County Public Schools after previously appointing her as interim superintendent in July. 

In addition to her superintendency, Jeter is also the current Director of the Lowndes County Head Start program, which she said will be changing in the near future as her full-time focus shifts to the duties and challenges that go along with overseeing daily operations as well as providing leadership for all schools in the county. 

“I will unfortunately have to resign from my position with Head Start,” Jeter said. “A decision will be made as to who will take over, but it will probably be next month before that happens.”

Jeter said that her appointment to superintendency, both interim and acting, came as a surprise to her, but she has grown to appreciate the position and has big plans for how she will carry out her duties and work to make improvements within the school system.

“My main focus is going to be improving student achievement,” Jeter said. “Achievement has been on the decline and right now I am looking at perhaps doing some unorthodox things, and I am thinking outside the box about how to get parents involved.”

Jeter announced that during her term as superintendent she plans to work within the county to ignite new initiatives in order to spark an interest of learning for children in Lowndes County, as well as to ensure that local parents understand the importance of their children’s education.

Lowndes County Board of Education board member Ben Davis expressed his pleasure with the board’s decision to elect Jeter to the superintendency.

“We know we’re going to have to make some changes, but she [Jeter] has the board’s 100% support,” Davis said. “I believe that she is going to do some great things that will truly take our schools to the next level.”