Donald Pendergrast has returned home. For 36 years he has worked to educate Mississippi, whether it be in schools, from the Mississippi Association of Independent Schools (MAIS) headquarters in Jackson, or in the state’s prisons.
“I wasn’t looking for anything,” Pendergrast said. “I had a good job with the state, but life has brought me back.”
He’s still getting settled in his new office at Calhoun Academy where he was named headmaster just over three weeks ago.
“I’m working right now to orientate myself to what we’ve got and where we need to go,” Pendergrast said. “There’s a lot to be accomplished.”
Pendergrast was born in Calhoun City to Jean and the late Edward Pendergrast. He attended school in Calhoun City through the fourth grade.
“We moved everywhere with my dad (who was a preacher),” Pendergrast said. “I actually graduated high school in Okolona, but Calhoun County always felt more like home to me.”
He attended college at the University of Southern Mississippi where he studied medical technology.
“I loved science and found the medical field extremely interesting,” Pendergrast said.
He was beginning the last phase of the 5-year program when he began having reservations about the career he had chosen.
The university experience had brought him out of the shyness of his youth. Suddenly, days of being alone in a laboratory sitting behind a microscope didn’t seem as appealing.
He began studying his options and teaching suddenly “fell into his lap.”
“I had already had all the course work I needed to become a science teacher,” Pendergrast said. “It was a quick transition.”
He graduated from Southern Miss and then earned his masters at Mississippi College, after which he was quickly offered a job in his native Calhoun as a chemistry, physics, biology and accounting teacher at Calhoun Academy.
“Those were great years,” Pendergrast said. “We had a lot of wonderful students, several that went on to become doctors (Greg Jenkins, Guy Farmer, Jr.).”
Not long after returning home, he was also offered a job in his native Calhoun City. He was hired by Dr. L.D. Webb, who was mayor, to do the town’s accounting as a deputy clerk.
“It was a part-time position,” Pendergrast said. “I did it for five years, until I left Calhoun Academy.”
He departed in 1984 to accept a teaching position at Madison Ridgeland Academy. A few years later he was hired by MAIS as its director of instruction. He remained there for 16 years before leaving to become education director with the Mississippi Department of Corrections based in its Rankin County facility.
“I really enjoyed the challenge of it,” Pendergrast said.
The challenge amped up last fall when MDOC’s juvenile system was consolidated into Pendergrast’s adult education program.
He spent the past six months building buildings, hiring an educational staff and compiling a new curriculum.
“It was a big undertaking, but I was really enjoying it,” Pendergrast said.
Throughout his tenure at MDOC and MAIS, he had received several calls from Calhoun Academy gauging his interest in returning.
“This time, it felt like the right time to come home,” Pendergrast said. “Calhoun Academy has always been important to me. There’s always been a deep connection there.”
Pendergrast believes his Calhoun County roots will provide the school with more than just a familiar face.
“They’ve had a lot of turnover here since Coach (Billy) Cook left,” Pendergrast said. “Being from here, I think I can add some stability.”
He is also confident that the academy can play an important role in the educational process of the county.
“All students learn differently,” Pendergrast said. “I believe there’s a place for all kinds of schools within the community and parents have the right to pick the best fit for their children.”
Pendergrast has already changed the elementary curriculum at the school to “Bob Jones,” which he said is more closely aligned to the Common Core standards, but with a “Christian emphasis.”
“We’re getting back to critical thinking,” Pendergrast said, “trying to teach students to think outside the box.”
Pendergrast, 59, said his task today at Calhoun Academy is the same mission he’s dedicated his career to.
“I believe I can still lend myself to helping children succeed in life,” he said. “During my (Department of) Corrections experience I saw what those adults missed out on in their early development years and what led them to the correctional system. I feel I can have a real impact here at Calhoun Academy.”