Sherman Avenue Elementary School assistant principal Tonya Magee was hired Thursday as the new principal for Warren Central Intermediate School, and Antonio Cooper Jr. was named dean of students for Grove Street School.

Both were unanimously approved by the five-member Vicksburg Warren School District Board of Trustees in a regular board meeting Thursday.

“I’m very excited,” said Magee, who begins her new position today. “I have a lot of help from the administration and I’m thinking it will be a big help.”

“I look forward to her leadership on that campus,” said superintended Dr. Elizabeth Duran Swinford. “She has done extremely well as assistant principal at Sherman Avenue and she will provide continuity of services, support to my teachers and engage my students in excellent activities for them to be successful contributors and for them to be successful in junior high and high schools.”

Magee was hired following the departure of longtime educator Dr. Edward Wiggins in May. Wiggins, a 34-year educator and former principal of Vicksburg Junior High, had been employed by the district for six years. Calls to Wiggins about his departure were not returned.

Magee’s hire at WCI was the first of three principal positions to be filled since coming open after the end of the school year in May.

Grove Street principal Kelvin Wymbs resigned at the end of May, Swinford said, and this week accepted a principal’s position at Lower Richland High School in Columbia, S.C. Beechwood Elementary School principal Chris Perritt also resigned at the end of May to accept an assistant principal position at Madison Central High School in Madison County, where he and his family live.

Magee’s promotion also means a vacancy for assistant principal at Sherman Avenue Elementary, which shares a building with WCI. Swinford said the district will advertise for the position, as well as look into moving personnel at Sherman Avenue.

Magee is an 11-year veteran of the school district, having worked as Sherman Avenue assistant principal for five years and six years as a fourth-grade teacher. A Gloster native, she received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Alcorn State University and a specialist degree in education leadership and supervision from Jackson State University. Her husband, Cedric Magee, is principal of Warren Central Junior High School.

Swinford also introduced Thursday night the dean of students for Grove Street School, a new position approved last month by the board. Cooper will be in charge of student discipline. The position of dean of students, while a management position, does not oversee or evaluate teachers, Swinford said adding Cooper will assist the school’s principal and assistant principal.

“I know that he will be a great asset there,” she said.

Cooper’s hiring is part of the changes being made to Grove Street, Swinford said. The administration had been looking at dividing elementary and secondary students into separate sections of the school, moving teachers into different classrooms and placing teachers within their certification, Swinford said.

Cooper, a Port Gibson native, has about four years of experience as a third-grade teacher and high school basketball coach in the Claiborne County School District and the Jefferson County School District. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education from Alcorn State University and is working on a doctoral at Walden University, an online college based in Minneapolis.

During the past school year, Beechwood enrolled 602 students in grades K-6, Warren Central Intermediate enrolled 593 students in grades 3-6. Grove Street has 250 students in 12 grades.