TOUGH LOVE Getting the job done, and well, requires plenty of push BY SUSAN MONTGOMERY
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r. Margie Pulley exemplifies the iron fist inside a velvet glove. The assistant school superDetermination intendent in Greenwood has produces learned that lesson through achievement, the years. says Dr. Margie “I am honest, hard-working, Pulley, determined, and on my job, I an assistant am no-nonsense,” she said. superintendent Pulley began teaching for Greenwood school in Greenwood more Public Schools. than 33 years ago. She taught social studies and worked as an assistant principal and, later, as principal. Now she runs federal programs for Greenwood Public Schools. She also works with curriculum and oversees the activities of principals and assistant principals. She holds a master’s degree from Delta State University, and she put a “Dr.” in front of her name in May 2005 when she received another advanced all-expenses paid education at Jackson degree from DSU. State University. Pulley endured the harshness of the Critics speculated their mother had spotlight as too much influrecently as ence on their spring 2005 dursuccess. She ing a personnel says of course hearing for a she influenced controversial her children — principal. but not in the Then, some Dr. Mar gie Pulley, way the critics people griped assistant school superintendent when her twin meant. sons graduated “I pushed first and second in their class at and pushed and pushed and encourGreenwood High School and earned an aged and encouraged and fought with
“We made a difference in the lives of many, many children.”
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them when I had to, and it paid off,” she said. Hard work and higher education also exemplify Pulley’s family. Her husband, Cedell, is superintendent of the Leflore County School District. Her mother, Claudine Brown, worked in the Leflore County school system, has an elementary school named for her and sits on the county school board. Pulley’s sister, Willie Jean Hall, is a county schools administrator, and another sister is an assistant principal in California. Pulley’s iron fist comes from a life as one of seven children, who grew up in the historic Browning Community of Leflore County. Her late father had to retire from his housepainting occupation when glaucoma blinded him. The family coped. Everybody worked first and then played. “You couldn’t go anywhere on the Fourth of July until you had shelled all of the purple-hull peas,” Pulley said. She graduated in 1971 from Amanda Elzy High School as class valedictorian. She was back in Greenwood in 1974, with a bachelor’s degree from JSU and a teaching job at Greenwood High School in hand. Pulley spent nine years as principal of Threadgill School, an elementary school that later became a citywide junior high. She took control of a sometimes rowdy campus and, at one point, she eliminated recess. “We made some changes,” she said. “We made a difference in the lives of many, many children.” Pulley’s velvet glove is her fairness. “I do try to be consistent,” she said. “People respect you if you are.” LI