The Effingham County Board of Education has named Billy Hughes as the next principal at Effingham County High School.

Yancy Ford, the current principal, earlier had been chosen to become an assistant superintendent with the school system.

“Dr. Ford will be in charge of many areas in the school district that were farmed out to other departments during a reduction of staff at the Board of Education several years ago due to a struggling economy,” Superintendent Randy Shearouse said.

An ECHS grad, Ford earned a bachelor’s in sports management and business education from Georgia Southern University. He also earned a master’s and educational specialist from Georgia Southern and completed his doctorate in educational administration at GSU in 2015.

Ford started his teaching career at ECMS in 1999 and then moved to ECHS in 2000. He became assistant principal and athletic director in 2004 and two years later was named ECHS principal.

Through a reorganization at the central office, Ford will be in charge of multiple areas, including school councils, the student/parent handbook, school residency issues, stakeholder concerns and middle and high school athletics.

“His vast knowledge of running a large high school for 10 years will help him as he provides important input on key decisions for the district,” Shearouse said. “I have had the pleasure of working with Dr. Ford as a school-level administrator before and look forward to working with him at the central office. He has a positive attitude about any challenge he may face.”

Hughes has been the principal at ECMS for the last five years and prior to that, he was the CTAE supervisor and assistant principal at ECMS for five years.

“He has a strong connection to ECHS,” Shearouse said. “His experience as a high school teacher and administrator certainly made Mr. Hughes an attractive choice for the position of principal at ECHS. Mr. Hughes is well-thought of in our community, and we look forward to Billy continuing to move ECHS forward.”