Jim Potts
Port Aransas High School will have a new principal when students return from summer break in 2019.
That’s because current PAHS Principal Jim Potts will be moving to the Texas panhandle, where his wife, Kendra, has been named head volleyball coach at West Texas A&M University in Canyon.
She will move north immediately, but Potts said he plans to stay for the spring semester.
“Unless something happens, I plan on finishing up the (school) year in Port Aransas,” he said. “I have not found or applied for any jobs up there.”
The position was posted publicly on the district’s website, and PAISD Superintendent Sharon McKinney said the district will look at all applications.
Potts said the decision to leave was difficult.
“It’s been my favorite place to work,” Potts said. “It’s the best group of students and staff I have been around. I’ve enjoyed the people and community, and I really hate leaving. But I am a family-first guy, and this is a perfect situation for me and my wife, because all of our family are up there.”
The Potts’ daughter, Ella, a first-grader at H.G. Olsen Elementary School, will be transferring to an elementary school in Amarillo after the Christmas break, he said.
“She is really sad to leave the school and all of her friends,” Potts said. “Port Aransas is a special place.”
Potts hails from Gruver, in the panhandle, while Kendra is from Amarillo. Both attended West Texas A&M University.
He was hired in April 2017 following the retirement of former PAHS Principal Scott McNeely. McNeely served as PAHS principal for two years.
Prior to PAHS, Potts spent four years as assistant principal at Flour Bluff High School. He also served as a teacher and coach Corpus Christi Carroll, Amarillo Canyon Randall and Dumas High Schools.
Potts has a bachelor’s degree in social science from West Texas A&M University, and he also holds a master’s degree in education from Lamar University in Beaumont.
McKinney said she hopes a new PAHS principal will be hired before the end of this school year, which ends on May 30.
“Our priority is finding the right person to continue the legacy of excellence at PAHS,” McKinney said.
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