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A jubilant mood set the tone in the Demopolis City Schools board meeting room Friday afternoon as the Board of Education gathered for a special called meeting to accept Dr. Adam Pugh’s contract as the new Superintendent of Demopolis City Schools.

Following a very brief meeting to unanimously vote to approve the lone agenda item, during which the board also thanked Interim Superintendent Dr. Bobby Hathcock for his assistance, the meeting was adjourned, and Dr. Pugh and board members signed the contract.

“I appreciate y’all letting me help out,” Hathcock told board members. “There are great people here. I think Adam is going to do a great job, I really do. I love the people in Demopolis, and this school system. Thank you for letting me be here.

“I didn’t know I was going to be here for seven months, but that’s OK,” he joked, “But I’m glad to have him here, and he just needs everybody’s support.”

Following a round of applause, Pugh addressed the room, “I’m excited to be here and thank you for the opportunity.”

Pugh grew up in Bay Springs, Mississippi, where he played football, baseball and basketball in high school.

“My mother is still there, and my sister and her kids live there. It’s not too far away,” Pugh said. 

When asked about his return to the field of education, Pugh said, “I was in Mississippi for 31 and a half years. For six years I taught social studies, and for the rest of it I was either principal or superintendent. The last three years I was retired from it, I just missed it. I was working for an architectural firm doing P.R. and business development. We did a lot of K-12 work, and I realized I missed it. When this opportunity came around, I was excited to get back into it.”

Pugh said he not only focuses on teaching, but about what the kids learn.

“Hopefully we’re going to see kids grow,” Pugh said. “Teaching without learning is just presenting material. We’ve got to make sure that the kids are learning what we want them to learn, and figuring out how to know if they’ve learned it. What do we do if they already know the material? What do we do if they don’t know the material? Those are four simple questions, but the detail is in ‘how do we accomplish those things.’”

“That’s what’s going to drive us,” he said of his main objectives. “I want our folks to love kids, love teaching kids, and we’re going to push every day to see them get better. I want the rest of the state to be looking at Demopolis and saying, ‘What are they doing down there? How are they getting so much better?”

Pugh is slated to begin work as DCS Superintendent on Monday, March 3. His plans for the last part of this school year?

“We’re going to be assessing through the rest of this year, and getting ready for next year.”