JacksonHeraldTODAY

East Jackson Comprehensive High School principal Tim Stowers is being reassigned to an athletic leadership position within the system, according to school leaders. Meanwhile, the school’s newly-hired football coach and athletic director both resigned this week, along with a couple other coaches who had been approved by the board of education to be hired, but who had not yet begun working at the school.
Stowers was hired earlier this year as principal by former superintendent John Green, who resigned May 16. System leaders said Friday that Stowers would be taking an unspecified position within the system’s athletic programs.
Officials said several strong people have already applied for the coaches’ positions and that a search for a new principal would undertaken at some point. For now, however, an interim principal would likely be named for EJCHS until a full search can be conducted.
COACHES RESIGN
Athletic director Brent Tisdale and head football coach Robert Andrews said they resigned from their positions this week due to financial issues that arose within the Jackson County School System.
Tisdale and Andrews, both of whom were previously employed at Grayson High School, cited furlough days and coaching staff constraints as the primary reasons for their resignations.
“It seems like it would be a great place, but with those furloughs and the instability of what the system looks like, I just can’t justify moving out there at this time in my life,” Tisdale said. “None of the guys we wanted to bring out there – we were going to be able to bring on. It’s already hard enough building a football staff and an athletic department when your points are thin anyway. It’s even harder to recruit coaches that you know are good when you are faced with things like furloughs.”
Tisdale also noted that the school system was unable to find a position for his wife and that he couldn’t justify moving his family to Jackson County with that “insecurity.”
Former Dacula High School defensive coordinator Gary Hughes, a coaching staff members Andrew planned to bring on, is also backing out of his position at East Jackson, leaving the Eagles with next to no coaching staff for the summer weight training and practice sessions.
Tisdale said he felt remorse for the students at EJCHS.
“I hate it for the kids,” he added. “That’s the worst part about this. We did spring football out there with the boys, and the community, and it’s an absolutely wonderful community and we really enjoyed our time out there.”
Tisdale said there were no hard feelings between him and the school system, and that he wished them the best in the future.
The county office has to do what it has to do to weather this storm, and I understand that.
“Dr. Howard has been put in a really difficult position,” he said. “I hope she is able to weather this storm and get things fixed for that county, because there are some great folks out there.”
For more on this story, look to the May 29 issue of The Jackson Herald.