Hancock school board appoints award-winning MS educator as interim superintendent
The Hancock County School Board has appointed a veteran educator to lead the district as interim superintendent after terminating Teresa Merwin’s contract last week.
Rhett Ladner will fill the role for the remainder of the 2022-23 school year, said Joan Seals, public relations administrator for the school board.
The school board voted on Ladner’s hiring in executive session at a special-called meeting Tuesday evening.
Ladner has worked as an educator for 28 years in school districts across Mississippi. He also served as an assistant superintendent in the Pascagoula-Gautier School district and in Perry County.
Ladner, a graduate of Hancock North Central, Pearl River Community College and the University of Southern Mississippi, has received numerous awards in his tenure as an educator, including when he was a principal at Hancock High School. He was named the county’s administrator of the year in 2012.
Ladner’s “lifelong dream is to be part of the innovative leadership team” in the Hancock district, Seals said in a news release.
In the meeting agenda posted online, the school board was expected to set Ladner’s salary at just over $10,400 per month.
The board was also set to to clarify Merwin’s termination date of Aug. 18 “for cause without further payment of salary or benefits.” Merwin was hired on July 1, 2021, in a three-year contract at $125,000 annually.
The school board has not discussed the reason for Merwin’s termination. She was well-liked among parents, who plan to speak out at the regularly-scheduled school board meeting on Monday, Aug. 29.
This story was originally published August 23, 2022 at 6:13 PM.
