From Lexington School District One- Mary Beth Hill.

In a staff last Monday (Jan. 13) Melissa C. Rawl, principal of Lexington High School, announced her plans to retire.

Of her retirement, Lexington County School District One Superintendent Greg Little said, “Melissa Rawl truly represents the best of Lexington District One. A quiet, calm leader, her employees know that she cares about them, but also know that she expects the very best they have to offer students. Under her leadership, LHS has flourished.”

With almost 43 years of educational experience, Rawl, who graduated from Lexington High School, began her teaching career in 1978 at Brookland-Cayce High School in Lexington School District Two.

She moved to Airport High School in 1979 as a teacher and department chair, and joined Lexington District One’s Gilbert High School in 1997 as a teacher and department chair.

In 1998, she moved to Lexington High School, where she served as a teacher and the district’s secondary summer school coordinator before becoming an assistant principal in 2001, then principal in 2011.

Rawl was named the 2018 S.C. Athletic Administrators Association 5A Principal of the Year, 2017 Lexington Rotary Club Lee Bullington Spirit Award winner, 2014 Palmetto Center for Women TWIN Award recipient, 2008 SCASA South Carolina Secondary Assistant Principal of the Year, 2004 Army National Guard Recognition of Support, 2000 Lexington High School Teacher of the Year finalist, 1994 Barbara H. James Award/Academic Teacher of the Year for Outstanding Contributions to and Support of Tech Prep, and the 1990 Airport High School Teacher of the Year.

She holds memberships in the National Association of Secondary School Principals, South Carolina Association of School Administrators, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, South Carolina Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, and Phi Beta Kappa.

Rawl graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in English education, a Master of Arts in Teaching (English), and a Master in Education in administrative leadership from the University of South Carolina.