William Nunn will be the new principal at Athena Elementary School beginning July 1.
He will replace Whittney Carter, who is wrapping up her second year as the school’s principal after serving as assistant principal there for three years.
De Soto School District superintendent Josh Isaacson said Carter has accepted a principal job in the Francis Howell School District in St. Charles County.
Nunn will be paid a $92,188 salary next school year as the Athena principal. He is being paid $92,500 this school year at the Parkway School District, where he has been an assistant principal at Craig Elementary School for the past three years. Carter is being paid $91,034 this school year.
Nunn, 38, of the Springdale area between Arnold and Fenton, said he is well acquainted with Jefferson County, including De Soto.
“I grew up in Barnhart and am a proud graduate of Windsor High School (in 2003), so I’m very familiar with De Soto. My friends and I always went there for road games, and I went to the skate park in De Soto for years and made a lot of friends there,” he said.
Isaacson said the Board of Education voted 6-0 on March 27 to hire Nunn. Board member Elaine Gannon was absent.
Isaacson said 15 people applied for the principal’s spot.
“He (Nunn) stood out because of his overall experience at multiple levels of education,” Isaacson said. “He also has experience in issues we’re dealing with, including positive behavior interventions, professional learning communities and school security.”
Nunn said when he learned about the opening at Athena, he jumped at the opportunity to apply.
“I’ve very much enjoyed my time (at Craig Elementary), but I’ve got two children, 6 and 15 years old, and I’d like to be closer to home for them. Traffic on I-270 takes a lot of my time that I’ll never get back,” he said.
Before joining Parkway, Nunn was assistant principal at Northwest Valley Middle School in the Northwest R-1 School District from 2018 to 2020. Previously, he was assistant principal at Confluence Academy, a charter school in St. Louis.
“Nothing against Confluence – it was a good experience – but I realized that I wanted to be part of the public school system,” he said.
Before that, he taught sixth-grade English at Bernard Middle School in the Mehlville School District for seven years.
He has a bachelor’s degree in teaching history, English and social studies from Truman State University and a master’s degree in teaching and educational administration, a specialist degree and a doctorate degree in teaching and learning education, all from Missouri Baptist University.
“I knew from the fifth grade that I wanted to be in education,” Nunn said. “It was something I always was geared toward.”
He said he enjoyed classroom teaching but learned early on that administration might be the way for him to go.
“I asked myself, ‘How can I make an impact beyond teaching English? How can I make my community better? How can I do more? I want to help teachers do what they do best, and that’s teach. I want to help them do better.”
Nunn said he’s eager to start work at Athena.
“I know from experience that this is a very supportive community,” he said. “I’m super excited to be part of this team at Athena that has been working well together. When I walked through the school and saw the mirrors they put up – to show the students that they are important – that was impressive. The staff has put their blood, sweat and tears into the school, and it shows. I want to keep that momentum going and moving forward.”
Isaacson said Carter was an effective administrator for the De Soto School District.
“She did a good job transitioning from assistant principal to principal,” Isaacson said. “This is an exciting opportunity to build on the leadership skills she demonstrated at Athena. I’m confident she will do well at her next endeavor.”
