The new principal of Warren Central will be a former banker from Alabama.

Rodney G. Smith of New Market was unanimously appointed Thursday night by the Vicksburg Warren School District Board of Trustees. He will replace Pam Wilbanks, who is retiring after three years as principal at the campus on Mississippi 27.

Smith, 50, has been in education since 1992.

“High school is where my heart is,” he said in an interview following the vote. “I like trying to make a difference with the big kids.”

Smith, in the city to accept his appointment and also look for a house, plans to complete his move to Vicksburg during the first half of June and be on the job July 1. His salary will be about $90,000 annually, said Superintendent Dr. James Price.

“I was a history major,” Smith said. “I’m thrilled to be coming to Vicksburg. I wanted to be in a place where history is alive.” He said he has already toured the military park and many of the sites in the city.

Smith has worked for the Madison County, Ala., board of education off and on since 1992, moving up from substitute teacher to high school government, economics and U.S. history teacher and then into administration. He was assistant principal at Buckhorn High School, a National Blue Ribbon School, from 1998 to 2004 and principal of an elementary school in Madison County in 2007 and 2008.

He also spent three years in Montana as a high school principal in the Troy School District.

Smith has a degree in secondary education/social science from Athens State University in Athens, Ala., and degrees in history and educational leadership from the University of Alabama. He has four children.

Assistant Superintendent Debra Hullum said Smith was chosen from a pool of nine candidates interviewed March 27 by a committee of teachers and administrators. The committee asked the same set of questions to each candidate and rated their answers. An executive team including Price, Hullum and Deputy Superintendent John Walls tabulated the results. Smith was the top scorer, Hullum said.

“This committee actually chose the new principal,” she said. “Its input is what determined that selection.”

Hullum said the position was advertised within the district, on the district’s Web site and on the Mississippi Department of Education Web site from Jan. 21 to Feb. 27. She did not know how many people applied.

Wilbanks is the first woman to serve as principal at a high school at least since the 1987 consolidation of the Vicksburg Municipal Separate School District and the Warren County Public School system. Warren Central and Vicksburg High are the 9,000-student district’s two high schools. There are two junior highs, eight elementaries and one alternative school.

Enrollment at Warren Central is 1,218, according to figures provided by the school, established in 1965 with the merger of Culkin, Redwood and Jett schools.

Smith said he is eager to get started there but said he would take time to see what the needs are before making any changes. “I look forward to working with the parents and the students and the teachers at Warren Central,” Smith said. “Sometimes I feel so excited I find it hard to sleep at night.”

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Contact Pamela Hitchins at phitchins@vicksburgpost.com

On the agenda

Meeting Thursday, Vicksburg Warren School District trustees:

* Approved the minutes of the March 19 budget hearing and regular meeting and the special meeting of April 9.

* Accepted cash and non-cash donations.

* Accepted the March 31 financial reports of finance director Dale McClung.

* Approved amendments to the 2008-2009 budget.

* Approved accounts payable claims docket.

* Approved various personnel matters including compensation for extra duty, certified personnel recommendations and resignation, substitute teachers and classified recommendations.

*• Approved various out-of-state travel requests from Dana Road, South Park, Bovina and Redwood elementary schools and Vicksburg Intermediate School.

* Approved a capital asset/surplus list for disposal.

* Accepted without discussion bids and proposals and issued authorizations to bid on diesel fuel and food.

* Approved changing the date and location of the regular May meeting to May 21 at Beechwood Elementary School.

* Approved advertising for hunting and fishing leases.

* Tabled consideration of a forest management Memorandum of Understanding with the Mississippi Forestry Commission.

* Approved the purchase of 15 buses to replace 1988 models.

* Met in executive session to consider a personnel matter.