Rivers becomes Lexington One district’s secondary schools director
March 27, 2020
On Tuesday, March 17, 2020, the Lexington County School District One Board of Trustees approved Dr. Thomas E. Rivers, Jr. for the position of Secondary Schools Director in the Instructional Services Division. Dr. Rivers replaces Ryan Pool, recently chosen to serve as principal at Lexington High School.
“Dr. Rivers is a proven servant leader who will continue to advocate for all students,” said Dr. Gloria Talley, the district’s chief academic officer. “I am excited about Dr. Rivers joining our team as director of secondary schools. His experience and professional achievements reflect the knowledge, skills and dispositions requisite for this important role in our school district.”
Rivers has 23 years of education experience, beginning his career in 1996 as coordinator of multicultural student affairs at the University of South Carolina. He began teaching there a year later. In 1999, he became the interim director of multicultural student affairs at USC.
In 2000, Rivers joined the South Carolina Department of Education’s Office of Curriculum and Standards as an education associate. There he participated in the development and implementation of curriculum standards, and provided leadership, support and staff development to school districts in the areas of social studies and multicultural education.
In 2001, he joined C.A. Johnson High School as dean of academics. He was promoted to assistant principal in 2006, working with the school’s freshman academy and serving as site coordinator for the High Schools That Work initiative.
Rivers joined Lexington County School District One as an assistant principal at Gilbert High School in 2007. He was promoted to the position of principal of Pleasant Hill Middle School in 2011.
During his nine years as principal, Pleasant Hill Middle successfully adopted FranklinCovey’s Leader in Me® program, implemented The Boomerang Project’s Where Everybody Belongs program (middle school mentoring), and became a South Carolina Arts Commission Arts and Basic Curriculum site and a finalist for the South Carolina Association of School Administrators Palmetto’s Finest award.
Rivers was named both the 2018 South Carolina Middle Level Principal of the Year and the 2011 South Carolina High School Assistant Principal of the Year by the South Carolina Association of School Administrators. He was also honored in the Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers in 2006. He received a 2005 Saluting Student Success Award from the South Carolina School Boards Association.
Rivers received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from James Madison University, another master’s degree from the University of West Alabama, and his principal certification, educational specialist’s degree, and Doctorate of Philosophy in educational administration from USC.
A graduate of the South Carolina School Leadership Executive Institute, a Leadership Lexington County graduate, and a Bookland Academy Child Development Center board member, Rivers is a member of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, National Association of Secondary School Principals, South Carolina Association of School Administrators and South Carolina Association for Middle Level Education.
