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Photo by the Hart County Board of Education
North Hart Elementary School (NHES) Principal Haley Smith has resigned from her position, effective Aug. 31.
Smith’s resignation was approved by the Hart County Board of Education Aug. 14.
Current NHES Assistant Principal Christina Weir was also approved to be the acting principal, beginning Aug. 15, and will assume the role of principal Sept. 1.
Smith’s resignation was approved following a comment she made regarding Hartwell Elementary School (HES), according to an Aug. 6 email response from Superintendent Jennifer Carter to concerned parents Isaac and Amber Temple.
In the email, provided to The Hartwell Sun by the Temples, Carter, who said she “served as a teacher and administrator” at HES and whose own children attended the school, said Smith “self-report[ed] the incident.”
“She was quick to share that the remark was inappropriate and in poor taste,” Carter wrote. “Mrs. Smith and Mrs. [Ashley] McNeill, principal of Hartwell Elementary School, had already discussed the matter prior to Mrs. Smith reaching out to me.”
Carter did not repeat the comment in the email to the parent and said she was “made aware of ” it Aug. 3.
Carter said Smith’s comment “reached Hartwell Elementary’s faculty” before reaching her, and that she “hate[s] the comment was also shared with parents.”
She also said Smith “personally addressed the matter with her faculty” Aug. 4.
“I sincerely apologize for the demonstrated unprofessionalism,” Carter wrote in the email. “There’s nothing that I can say to make the comment acceptable, and collectively, we are better than this. Please know that the incident is not being taken lightly.”
Before becoming principal of NHES in 2018, Smith began her career with the Hart County Charter System in 2008 as a teacher at Hartwell Elementary School, according to the school system’s website.
Carter was unavailable for comment before press time Wednesday.
“As you already know, [HES] is a remarkable school filled with loving staff members and precious children,” Carter wrote in the email. “I know that Mrs. Smith would agree with this statement as she too taught there and allowed her son to attend school there.”
The Aug. 14 faculty changes were included with a large group of personnel recommendations, including transferring current Hart County High School Assistant Principal Marion Hanahan to the assistant principal position at NHES.