Rumors that the McComb school board fired superintendent Dr. Cederick Ellis on Tuesday night continued all day Wednesday without confirmation.
If accurate, his dismissal would come less than two weeks after McComb advanced to its first-ever B rating from the state Department of Education. McComb had a D in 2019 but its test scores had improved steadily over the past two years.
The school board also reportedly suspended Ellis for three weeks in August, apparently upset by his failure to inform them about student misbehavior during the week in June when about 30 players attended a football camp in Florida. The trip was organized by McComb coaches but the school district did not pay any of the expenses.
Ellis was out of town at an education conference this week and was not at Tuesday’s school board meeting. He had not returned to McComb by Wednesday afternoon.
The five trustees went into executive session at least two times during the meeting. The trustees sent school staff out of the board room for both of the closed sessions.
Ellis became superintendent during the summer of 2013. His signature effort to experiment with different education procedures was through student-centered learning, where each student proceeded through academic tasks at their own pace instead of an entire classroom following the same schedule.
He reopened Summit Elementary School for 300 students in grades 1 through 6 for this. Academic improvements were slow, but Ellis expanded the student-centered program to other elementary schools in the district.
McComb had D ratings from the state for several years, but advanced to a C in 2022 and then to the bottom of the B scale this year.
