Prattville resident accepts principal slot at Columbia
Prattville’s loss will be Madison’s gain.
The week of June 16, Mark McCrory will be leaving his job in Prattville to begin work as principal of Columbia Elementary School. The Madison Board of Education approved hiring McCrory at a brief meeting on July 10.
Since 2007, McCrory has been working as director of elementary and federal programs for Autauga County Schools. In this job, McCrory assisted superintendent Greg Faulkner and supervised the areas of curriculum, federal programs, assessment, accountability and professional development.
For three years, McCrory was principal at Pine Level Elementary School in Deatsville, which has more than 1,000 students in grades K-6. He was certified for the Alabama Reading Initiative (ARI) and participated in the Alabama Renaissance Academy, system technology leadership team and Alabama Leadership for Math, Science and Technology.
While he was principal, Pine Level was an ARI literacy demonstration site for principals and reading coaches. He was assistant principal there from 2002-2004.
In the classroom, McCrory taught science and history at Billingsley School and coached football and baseball from 1999-2002. He also taught those subjects and was assistant football coach and head baseball coach at Northview High School in Dothan, Daleville High School and New Brockton High School.
On the Montgomery campus of Auburn University, McCrory earned a bachelor’s degree in biology and history, a master’s degree in educational leadership and educational specialist status.
He received the Marbury Technology Innovation Award in 2006 from the state of Alabama. McCrory is a member of the Council for Leaders in Alabama Schools (CLAS) and the state and national associations of elementary school principals.
In addition, McCrory serves of the executive board of the Alabama Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
McCrory comes to Columbia after Nelson Brown’s transfer to principal at Liberty Middle School. The Liberty slot was open when Dr. Brian Clayton transferred to James Clemens High School. After being hired as James Clemens principal in 2011, Dr. John Green returned to Georgia to work as a superintendent of schools.
