Over the summer administration changes are typical, but this year Vicksburg High School is getting a brand new assistant principal.

After a 17-year career in missions and ministry, Brad Blake’s second career in education has taken off, and he is taking over his first administrative position this year at VHS.

He is working closely with principal Deowarski McDonald to fill gaps, to find opportunities to make a difference, to be available, to be a force for positive change and to be an asset for teachers and students.

“There is great potential here if we come to work everyday with a positive attitude that the sky is the limit,” he said. “Make it go beyond the sky.”

Blake isn’t going to implement any major plans at Vicksburg High just yet. He wants get acclimated and learn the cultural of the school first.

“My plan here in the beginning is just being a learner,” he said, which includes learning about the school, students, teachers, parents and community. His approach is to “just generally absorb every part of school life and find where I can be most useful.”

During his mission and ministry career, Blake spent four years in Memphis, five years in New York and seven years in Nigeria. The family had planned on staying in Africa forever, and three of his four children were born there.

“We knew we had to do something different because the rigors of ministry had taken a toll on us, and we needed to regroup and do something to stabilize our family,” Blake said.

After leaving Africa in 2008, Blake went to Nashville and began his educational career as a truant officer, which sparked his interest in obtaining a transitional teaching license. He then headed back to Memphis and got a job as a high school history teacher.

One summer his job was phased out of the school where he taught because of a school system merger; but while he was at an advanced placement U.S. History workshop at Ole Miss, he met a teacher who was leaving his post at Warren Central and recommended Blake look into the position.

Blake took the job and taught U.S. History, AP U.S. History, AP World History and AP European History at Warren Central for three years before furthering his education by joining the Ole Miss Principal Corps to become a principal.

“I basically had to take a year away from the classroom to become trained as a principal. I was placed in Clinton public schools to learn how to be a principal,” he said.

He said he learned a lot about being an administrator from his time in Clinton because he was working as a principal on a daily basis.

“It really was a rich experience,” he said.

After a year of interning in Clinton schools, Blake is returning to Vicksburg but this time at VHS.

“When the opportunity arose to serve here in Vicksburg, I was thrilled to get the opportunity to serve back in Vicksburg but especially to serve in Vicksburg High School,” Blake said.

He has his doctorate of ministry and is now pursuing a doctorate in educational studies.