If an agreement made between Oxford and Lafayette schools and government leaders is reached, Bramlett Elementary principal Suzanne Ryals, will be starting a new job this summer as the areas first Early Literacy and Reading Development director.

During Friday’s LOU Excel by 5 Coalition quarterly meeting, Oxford School District Superintendent Brian Harvey announced the new position and that Ryals has been offered the job.

Harvey said he has verbal agreements from Lafayette County School District and Board of Supervisors and the city of Oxford Board of Aldermen to jointly fund the salary for the position and is hopeful the written agreement will be finalized in the next couple of weeks. The agreement would have each entity contributing $25,000 toward Ryal’s salary and benefits, as well as operational costs.

A committee has offered the job to Ryals should it be approved.

Ryals would be working with local childcare centers with the goal of increasing kindergarten readiness, Harvey said.

“It was an idea I had on how we could help ensure, or improve our kindergarten readiness,” Harvey said. “We’ve looked at the scores from our kindergartners and where we were with different childcare centers and reached out to our board and Lafayette County and started working from there.”

Ryals has been the principal at BES for six years and was assistant principal at Oxford Elementary for two years before moving to BES. She has 15 years of experience in school administration and has worked in various other school districts around Mississippi before coming to Oxford.

“I’m extremely excited about moving into this new role,” Ryals said Friday. “Early learning and literacy are a passion of mine. It will be challenging, but at the same time, something I cannot wait to get involved with.”

Harvey said the formal agreement will go before the Oxford Board of Aldermen and the Lafayette County Board of Supervisors in April. If it’s approved, Ryals will begin her new job on July 1 and the search for a new principal at BES will begin immediately, Harvey said.