By John R. Schirmer
News-Leader staff
BLEVINS – Blevins Elementary School has a new name.
It’s now Randy Hughes Elementary School in memory of a former teacher, coach, principal and superintendent in the Blevins School District for more than a decade.
Randy Hughes coached and taught math at Blevins before becoming elementary school principal, a position he held for seven years.
He then served three years as the district’s superintendent.
Family, friends and former colleagues attended a ceremony in the school cafeteria Monday afternoon, Sept. 27, to honor Hughes and to unveil a banner marking the new name.
Superintendent Stephanie Dixon said the Arkansas Department of Education approved the name change in July after it received a unanimous vote from the Blevins School Board.
Athletic Director and Coach Scott Kelton said Hughes was “a very special
man. It’s important to the community to name this building for him.”
Kelton said Hughes will be remembered as “an outstanding educator, a quality man and a godly man.”
The program included a slide show produced by Hughes in the early 1980s.
His wife Karan said the slides were from 1980-81. “Randy did the slide show to raise money for the elementary school playground. I found a box with the slides” and asked that they be shown at Monday afternoon’s event.
“He would have been so honored” by re-naming the school for him, Karan Hughes said.
Randy Hughes died Jan. 1, 2021.
