Earlier this year at a Palmyra Board of Education meeting, board members voted to move the sixth grade to Palmyra High School. Previously, the sixth grade was taught at the Charles Street School located at 100 W. Charles St.
To create a better environment for sixth-grade students to not only grow educationally, but emotionally as well, the board members created a plan that would turn the second floor of the high school into the new Palmyra Middle School serving grades six, seven and eight.
While the idea to move these students to the high school was the option they eventually settled on, it was actually the third option. The first two included moving the three grades to Charles Street or moving students to the Delaware Avenue School. Regardless, now that Palmyra Middle School is housed within the high school, the school will also need a principal. Kenneth Holloway is the man for the job.
“I was first hired at Palmyra in 1993 as the middle school health and physical education teacher,” said Holloway. “That was the same year that the seventh- and eighth-grade students first came over from the Charles Street School.”
After beginning in 1993, Holloway served as the varsity coach for boys and girls soccer, girls basketball, and the baseball team at different times. In 2010, Holloway became the athletic director for a short period before assuming the role of assistant principal in the spring of 2011.
In the fall of 2014, Holloway was appointed as principal of Palmyra High School, and then in 2018, he was appointed to the position of chief academic performance officer for the Palmyra School District. However, Holloway is excited to get back to the middle school.
“I am extremely excited to come ‘full circle’ and once again work with our middle school student population,” said Holloway. “My message to the students of Palmyra Middle School will be to become active learners and get involved in making their school a better place than when they first arrived. I really can’t wait to see them begin their journey.”
Throughout Holloway’s journey from earning his bachelor’s degree in health and physical education from Trenton State College and later receiving his master’s of education in educational administration from Capella University in 2006, to all of the different positions he has held, Holloway continues to try to inspire the students to be the best they can be.
While most of his responsibility as principal of the middle school will remain the same as his previous position of chief academic Performance officer to increase the school’s NJSLA Language Arts & Math scores and attendance rate, Holloway will strive to inspire his students as he was inspired by his former physical education teacher.
