Enterprise superintendent Greg Faught announces his retirement

Enterprise City Schools Superintendent Greg Faught confirmed to The Sun on March 23 that he would be retiring following the current school year, effective June 30.

Faught has served as Enterprise City Schools Superintendent since 2017 when he was chosen from a field of four candidates for the position who were interviewed by the Enterprise Board of Education on March 17, 2017. Others vying for the ECS top spot, in alphabetical order, were Dr. Chris Cox, Oxford City Schools Superintendent; Zel Thomas, then ECS Coordinator of Student Affairs; and, Dr. Jason Yohn, Pelham High School Principal.

Those four finalists had been selected by the three-member search committee from a field of 10 applicants and were announced on Feb. 24 at a special called meeting of the search committee, which was comprised of EBOE members Robert Doerer and Bert Barr and EBOE attorney Merrill Shirley.

Faught said that he felt like now was the right time to move on from his role at ECS.

“Now is the right time for me to focus on my family and other interests,” Faught said. “It’s been a wonderful experience the last 20 years for me and my family. We’re in a good spot.

“We’ve accomplished a lot together. When I say ‘we,’ I mean the board, our staff and myself, over the 4 1/2 years.”

On Nov. 29, 2016 Faught was named interim superintendent after having acted as acting superintendent since Oct. 29, 2016 following the announcement of former superintendent Dr. Camille Wright’s retirement.

“It was never my intent to be a long term superintendent,” Faught said. “There were some things hanging in the balance that needed to be addressed when I was applying for the position and I was committed to seeing those things through.

“I felt like we’ve done that and that I’ve done my job over the last 4 1/2 years, so now is the right time for me to move on and let someone with new ideas and new energy take over.”

Faught pointed to the schools most recent state report card of an A and a number of projects at ECS during his tenure – like the redesign and construction of the new Coppinville Junior High, reacquiring College Street Elementary and converting it to Enterprise Career Technology Center, reconfiguring all the elementary schools, new athletic facilities at Enterprise High School, upgrades to roofing and storm shelters at ECS schools and more – as some of the things he wanted to see through, but he said the repairs to the construction issues at EHS that have plagued the school for a number of years was his primary concern.

“That was the biggest thing at the time,” Faught said. “The biggest thing was trying to get EHS squared away and repaired and that took pretty much my entire tenure to do.

“It was a taxing project and time consuming but together – with the board and the other staff – we got it done. We’re still trying to work out some final details to finish it up but we’re blessed to be in the position we’re in.”

Before becoming acting superintendent at ECS he had served as ECS Assistant Superintendent – essential director of operations – since February 2014. In that capacity Faught developed and annually updated the schools’ capital plan and has overseen all aspects of the building and renovation projects.

Faught served as ECS Secondary Education Curriculum Supervisor from 2012-2014 during which time he was responsible for supervision of all aspects of secondary education in grades seven through 12. Faught was the principal of the now defunct Enterprise Junior High School from 2001 until 2012, which was a position he came to after serving as assistant principal at Girard Middle School in Dothan.

Faught – a Lakleand, Fla., native – has also served as assistant principal of curriculum at Westwood Middle School in Winter Haven, Fla., the dean of students at Lake Gibson Middle School in Lakeland, Fla., a physical education teacher at Kathleen Elementary School in Lakeland, Fla., and in-school suspension teacher at East Naples Middle School in Naples, Fla.

Faught said that he believes he is leaving the school system in great shape moving forward and is excited to see where it goes from here.

“I think the school system is in great shape moving forward,” Faught said. “Next year there will be some exciting things in regards to driving class sizes down. You know there will be some learning gaps because there were so many missed days by students (due to COVID-19 protocols), but there are a lot of facility upgrades that are going to be coming, too.

“There’s no other hot button big ticket (projects) left, though. We haven’t shirked any of our responsibilities. If it came up along the way, we addressed it even though some of it was controversial and uncomfortable. We didn’t shy away from our responsibilities.

“And again when I say ‘Us,’ I’m talking about the board, myself and the other staff members in the school district. I certainly couldn’t have done any of this by myself. It was a collaborative effort all the way. What I will miss most is being around the bright minds of our young people every day. I will also miss the friends I’ve made along the way within the school system.”