Typically, Superintendent Alee’ Dixon is the one who provides surprising news at monthly Tate County school board meetings.
The tables were turned Tuesday, Jan. 9, when several members of Mississippi’s Alpha Delta Chapter of the Delta Kappa Gamma Society International were in attendance to present the unsuspecting Dixon with the Red Rose Award.
“Every biennium, we select a woman leader residing in our chapter area whose accomplishments have benefitted education and the status of women in leadership roles,” said Alpha Delta Chapter member Marsha Shaddock before pinning a red rose on Dixon’s lapel.
The Delta Kappa Gamma Society International, founded in 1929 in Austin, Texas, promotes professional and personal growth of women educators and excellence in education. Mississippi’s Alpha Delta Chapter was organized in Senatobia in 1966 with 19 original charter members. The chapter comprises Desoto, Marshall, and Tate counties.
Dixon, born and raised by a pair of career Mississippi educators, was unanimously appointed the first female superintendent of Tate County schools in 2020 and was successful in her attempt to move the district from a “C” to a “B” in the latest annual statewide accountability ratings.
A 1996 graduate of Coldwater High, Dixon has spent 24 years in the Tate County School District and earned her first teaching job at Strayhorn. She was eventually hired as assistant principal at Independence Middle School before becoming special education director and curriculum and assessment director for the district.
Dixon was named deputy superintendent of TCSD in 2012 and assistant superintendent in 2018.
“We are presenting this to Ms. Dixon because I believe everyone one of us knows she is deserving of this award,” said Malinda White, school board secretary. “I have been a member of the Alpha Delta Chapter for 30 years and when they asked me what I thought, I said they couldn’t have picked a more perfect or worthy person. Faith, family and Tate County children are what’s most important to her.”
