Melissa Collison Returns to Green County Intermediate as Principal

Thu, 02 Jul 2026 12:00:00 GMT

Melissa Collison's route to the principal's office at Green County Intermediate School loops back to where she first learned the work.

"I did my student-teaching in Green County in 2007," Collison said in a written response to EdTribune. She later worked as a substitute teacher and in long-term substitute jobs before taking her first full-time position in another county, where she worked for 15 years. When Green County later posted an assistant principal opening, she applied. "Now, a year later, I have officially been hired as principal of Green County Intermediate School. I am thrilled to be back to where I started!"

Collison confirmed that the principal role officially begins July 1. Her first-year priorities, as she described them, are both academic and emotional.

"My goal for my first year is to help our students academically but also emotionally," she said. "I want every child walking through our doors to know they are important, they are unique, they are worthy, and they are loved."

A Small School in a Steady District

Green County Intermediate enrolled 387 students in 2025, making it the smallest of the district's four schools listed in Kentucky enrollment data.

The district context is unusually steady. Green County^↗ enrolled 1,779 students in 2025, the high point in the Kentucky package window. That was up 30 students from 2020 and up 17 students from the prior year, while statewide enrollment was down 2.3% over the same window.

The student-support context is just as central to the story Collison is telling. In 2025, 66.0% of Green County students were economically disadvantaged and 19.9% were in special education, according to state enrollment subgroup data.

A Partnership Frame

Collison described Green County Intermediate as a school where staff already share a common purpose.

"I can truly say that everyone that works here at GCIS has a heart to do what is best for the students," she said. "I am excited to be a part of a great school with amazing teachers and staff."

Her message to families is practical: contact the school, raise concerns, and treat the work as shared.

"I want families to know that we are here to help them anyway we can," Collison said. "It truly has to be a partnership for the students' benefit."

The challenge she named was not a single program or metric. It was the responsibility of becoming the person accountable for the building.

"There will always be challenges and especially since I am new and have lots to learn, but I am excited about being the best person I can for this role," she said. "I want everyone to know that I see myself as a servant for these students. I do not take this job lightly."

For a district whose enrollment has edged upward while Kentucky overall declined, the leadership transition at Green County Intermediate is less a turnaround story than a continuity story. Collison is returning to the system where she started, and she is framing the principalship around a simple test: whether students and families feel known, supported, and loved.

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Green County - EdTribune KY - Kentucky Education Data

Melissa Collison Returns to Green County Intermediate as Principal

A Small School in a Steady District

A Partnership Frame