Enrollment at Warren Central High School is up by 90 students in the school year that began Monday, while discipline referrals between November and May declined by 1,500 over the same period the previous year, Principal Jamie Creel said Wednesday.

Both are evidence of the good things going on at the largest school in the Vicksburg Warren School District, Creel told members of the Vicksburg Lions Club.

“The A-number-1 thing I heard from people when I took over there was, ‘We want Warren Central to be the way it used to be,’” he said. “Now I’m hearing that we are on the right track, that it’s headed to where it should be.”

Creel, 41, a Clinton native and the former assistant principal and head baseball coach at Vicksburg High School, became principal at WCHS in November and said one issue tackled right away was “community perception.”

He worked to resolve problems with “disgruntled parents, frustrated students and upset teachers,” he said, and helped all factions feel a sense of ownership there. Students sent to the office for discipline, which includes major infractions as well as such minor ones as excessive tardies, declined from about 5,000 per year to 3,500 last year, he said, and the administration hopes to reduce that by 1,500 more this year, he said.

Calls from parents are returned within 24 hours and the administration has an open-door policy for anyone who wants to visit the school.

Creel said several weeks before school started, enrollment at WCHS was expected to be 1,120. By Wednesday, additional registrations had bumped enrollment to 1,215.

Enrollment at the district’s only other high school, VHS, was at 1,157 earlier this week, Principal Derrick Reed said.

“Public school education is alive and well,” Creel said. “It’s growing and it’s getting better. We have programs in place to make it better.”

In addition to touting improved discipline at Warren Central, Creel summarized its academic strengths, including outstanding algebra teachers, advanced placement courses, robotics classes, dual enrollment that gives students college credits and the Accelerated Program for Transition, which this year moved 17 Warren Central students from the ranks of potential dropouts to GED recipients trained for employment.

Athletics and the arts — drama, band and choir — also got a mention.

WCHS was built in the mid-1960s and needs “a face-lift” and some structural improvements, including updated science labs, said Creel.

“We are still operating with the same science labs as we had 40 years ago,” he said. “When these kids go off to college they need to be as prepared as they can be.”

Creel also is hoping to raise $100,000 to purchase new scoreboards for the baseball, softball and football fields and a state-of-the-art message board for the front of the campus on Mississippi 27.

“I have two people committed to donating $50,000 in the next two years and I need two more,” he said.

He is passionate about his job, he said, but the schools and the students need the involvement of parents, community organizations and churches.

“We need everyone to pull together,” he said. “Everybody must feel they have ownership in the local schools for us to be successful.”