Campbell High’s principal and athletic director have been assigned to other Cobb County schools for 2025-26 after their decision to fire the Smyrna school’s longtime basketball coaches led to public outcry and, eventually, the coaches’ reinstatement.
Principal Vanessa Watkins was named principal at Betty Gray Middle School in Mableton. She will be replaced at Campbell by Paul Gillihan, Wheeler High’s principal the past six years.
Athletic director James Thigpen was assigned to Kennesaw Mountain High.
Their new appointments are effective July 1.
Watkins and Thigpen told basketball coaches James Gwyn and Randy McClure in March that their contracts would not be renewed. Gwyn became Campbell’s boys coach in 1995, and McClure became Campbell’s girls coach in 1990. The school’s gymnasium was named in their honor in 2019.
Supporters started a petition asking the school board to look into their nonrenewals and reinstate them. The petition got more than 4,000 signatures.
Superintendent Chris Ragsdale announced April 24 after an investigation that the coaches would be offered contracts, and they accepted.
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