Effective July 1, Chresal Threadgill will no longer be the principal at Charles Henderson Middle School, but he won’t go too far.

He will be reporting instead to the Troy City Schools central office as the administrative assistant to the superintendent.

“I felt like I could better serve in the central office,” said Threadgill, who recently took a superintendents class and said he is ready to put those lessons to work.

“I can also take the things I was doing at the middle school and implement them throughout the system.”

The board of education is counting on just that.

“I am going to miss having Mr. Threadgill at the middle school,” said Linda Felton-Smith, Superintendent of Troy City Schools. “However I believe he can take the approaches he takes at the middle school and transfer them to work at all the schools in the district.”

“I want to thank everybody,” Threadgill said. “My faculty and staff, my parents and students, the community and the board. They all supported me as principal.”

Threadgill will be filling the vacancy left by recently retired Jimmy Mathews who held the position for 40 years.

The superintendent said that there were numerous other applications including several from outside the school district.

“He (Threadgill) applied for the position, and out of the applicants who applied, he was the best for the position,” Felton-Smith said.

“He has the skills and the demeanor to work at the central office level,” she added.

“I think this move is an opportunity for Mr. Threadgill to continue to work with students, faculty and staff, but in a new role.”

“We’re all a team,” Threadgill said. “We need to be moved in areas that we feel are best for the system.”

Threadgill added that he will visit the middle school regularly after changing jobs.

Of course Threadgills’ movement will require the filling of a void at CHMS.

“We will be posting a job announcement for principal at the middle school in a couple of days,” Felton-Smith said. “Those applications will be looked at very carefully ,and Mr. Threadgill will be part of reviewing them and a part of the interviewing process.”

“Being a principal is a tough job,” Threadgill said. “At this time I don’t know who will apply, but I do hope that we’ll have a large pool to choose from.”