Now in his sixth year at the helm of a noticeable shift in Meridian’s culture, the Bobcats continue to rise thanks to Superintendent Green’s emotionally intelligent leadership and open communication with students. “My whole mission that first year with my administrators was focused solely on changing the culture,” Mr. Green explains, “and changing the culture, not just for the staff, the students, but also how we were looked upon, not just by our community, but even from outside.” One issue that required resolution was a problem of the narrative kind. As a new member of a community where countless good things were rippling under the surface, finding the best way to direct attention to Meridian’s accomplishments was to become a war of words. “We’re not good at telling our story at times,” Mr. Green says, speaking on what provoked him to pursue the cultural redirect he spearheaded.

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But it almost never happened.

 

Mr. Green’s tale of his 2018 interview for a district job is not without intrigue. He’d already worn a Superintendent hat for nine years, and his career in administration was approaching the 15-year mark. At the time, he was looking to relocate to Goreville with his two sons to join his new wife, and though he had interviews, an administrative role in the area had yet to pan out. “I’d actually committed to selling insurance,” he says, able to recall the exact date. “I think it was June 25th. I had taken an interview down here at Meridian to be the high school principal on June 26th.” On the road back from the seventeen-minute interview, he received calls from the then-Superintendent and Board President asking if he’d turn around. Destiny loomed.

 

“When I got back to the school, the Board President was waiting for me, out in the parking lot. He goes, ‘I think we have a surprise for you.’” The timing couldn’t have been more right. Unbeknownst to Mr. Green, the Superintendent at that time was on his way out the door for a position elsewhere and he’d shared that news with the Board after Jon had left his interview, which is what led the district to ask if Mr. Green would step up to the plate as Meridian’s new Super.

 

Six years into waves of transformation at Meridian, Mr. Green has proved that the path of least resistance is often the path of those unwilling to facilitate constructive change. He describes a phone call he received from a fellow administrator early in his tenure at Meridian: “He asked me what I was thinking [about taking the job.] He said, ‘You know, that’s where careers go to die.’” Mr. Green’s administrative mission is one of resisting these cynical voices of dissent and demonstrating that “kids are kids and people are people. You have to find the right motivation to put them in the right place to be successful.”

 

As an administrator beloved by staff and students, he’s brought the proof to the pudding. Through projects and initiatives allied with the hard-fought efforts of his administrative and faculty cohort, Meridian has seen an expansion in dual credit offerings to the number of students who want to obtain an associate’s degree, shepherded CTE (Career and Technical Education) art and music programs and made efforts to increase the opportunities for college-bound students to visit universities and see places they might not otherwise. The district’s progression into new territories is thanks to the spirit of “Bobcats Rising,” which Mr. Green and the Meridian education team champions as necessary fuel for the purring motor that carries Meridian forward.

 

“I was told this is where careers go to die,” he says, shaking his head. “No. This is where people rise.”

 

That ‘rising,’ Mr. Green remarks upon, is not unlike the phoenix rising from the ashes. And, hey, that sounds mysterious enough to us to attribute to destiny or fate, but also to highly competent and valuable leadership along with a cohesive team pulling in the same, positive direction. If you want to find out for yourself, his door’s always open, and he’s proud to report that he’s not going anywhere.

 

Publisher’s note: It is worth sharing here, that this story is about as unlikely to have ever come about as is the changing of the spots on a leopard. Our publisher and interviewer, Craig Williams, had to basically cajole Mr. Green into joining him for this interview under the auspices of having ‘a chat.’ This is an interview that Mr. Green has long avoided, preferring (by a substantial margin) to push forward the stories of Meridian’s teachers, students, alumni, and community members. All of that said, Mr. Williams and Mrs. Boren contrived an intercom call for Mr. Green to come to the office where a digital recorder was waiting, ready to take the interview. Humility and his lifelong conviction that ‘there is no I in the word team,’ has long prevented Mr. Green from getting too close to the spotlight, but we felt it was time for our school community to get a glimpse at the gentleman who very nearly missed the chance to be part of it all here at Meridian, but who now claims it as the singular career highlight he would have never wanted to miss. We’re grateful he agreed to make an exception and, for just this once, dip a toe into the edge of the spotlight.