Welcome to the world of Kee Earl Edwards.
If you could buy stocks in a person, he would be a solid investment.
After graduating from Middletown High School in 1993, Edwards attended Alabama A&M in Huntsville, Ala., where his father’s family once lived before moving to Middletown to work at Armco.
Edwards had many job offers after college: the school where he student taught in Alabama and schools in California and Tennessee.
But he was drawn back to Middletown. When he was a high school senior, his mother, Edrena Edwards Jones, adopted her nephew due to family issues.
“The drug scene was getting bad in my own community,” he said. “My community needed me to serve. It didn’t make sense to go somewhere else to serve.”
Edwards, 47, has worked in the Middletown City School District for 26 years, and continually risen through the ranks.
He has gone from second-grade teacher to assistant principal to principal to assistant director of human resources to his most recent promotion, senior director of human resources.
At the Feb. 27 Board of Education meeting, when the promotions of Edwards and Keri Hensley to senior director of curriculum were approved, Edwards thanked everyone for the “opportunity to serve the community I love. Middletown is home for me.”
He then acknowledged the mentorship provided by Marlon Styles Jr., the former superintendent who left the district after five years for another position. He said from the first day, Styles pushed him to be a better leader.
Edwards said he was “comfortable” as principal at Miller Ridge Elementary School.
But, he said: “I knew I needed a challenge.”
Styles was the man to push the right buttons.
“He defined that challenge,” Edwards said of Styles. “He was the one who inspired me.”
Deb Houser, who replaced Styles as superintendent, said Edwards has “consistently demonstrated exceptional work ethic, dedication, and a strong commitment to Middie values.”
Marie Edwards, who has been married to Kee for 16 years, isn’t surprised by his success. She sees the hours he puts in, long after the school day ends.
“He loves the kids, he loves the community,” said Edwards, the out of school program director at the Community Building Institute (CBI). “He’s just so passionate about it.”
The passion for education was passed down to Edwards from his mother. She taught first grade at Taft, and ironically, when Edwards was hired in 1997, he was assigned his mother’s classroom, the place where he spent so much time after school.
Marie Edwards said working in education has always been in her husband’s “blood. It was second nature.”
There was a time when Edwards wanted to coach the Middletown High School boys basketball team. He spent several successful seasons coaching the lower levels. But he traded in that whistle for promotions.
“I wouldn’t change anything,” he said. “What was meant to be has happened.”
The plan worked to perfection.
KEE EDWARDS CAREER
1997-2004: Second-grade teacher Taft Elementary
2004-05: Assistant principal Vail Middle School
2006-13: Principal Vail Middle School
2013-21: Principal Miller Ridge Elementary School
2021-22: Assistant director of human resources
2023: Senior director of human resources.
FAMILY
Wife: Marie Edwards. Children: Ashlyn, 24, Kee’J, 12, Selah, 9. Grandson: Vincent Calhoun, 2.
About the Author
