Mr. Allen Kirby will be taking the lead as Headmaster at the beginning of the 2025-2026 school year. Mr. Kirby is well known in the Clarendon community. He is currently in his 20th year of education. He is currently the principal of Walker Gamble Elementary in New Zion where he will finish out the 2024-2025 school year before taking the lead role at LMA.
Allen earned a Bachelor’s of Science in Elementary Education at Francis Marion University and a Master’s in Education from Cambridge College. He also earned a degree of Education Specialist in Leadership from Coastal Carolina University. Allen started his career at Walker Gamble, teaching second and third grade for eight years. He then transitioned to being the assistant principal at Johnsonville Middle School for three years. For the past nine years, Allen was able to return home as the principal for Walker Gamble Elementary. Under his leadership, Walker Gamble Elementary has been named a Palmetto’s Finest School and a National ESEA Distinguished School. The school has also been featured in a book and numerous case studies shared around the world because of the Collective Leadership model that has been implemented. They partnered with the South Carolina State Department of Education and Mira Education (formerly CTQ) to develop the framework that is now used around the state as well.
Allen is married to Abbie Kirby and they have two children, Cal (8) and Caroline (5). He is looking forward to his role at LMA and excited to become part of the Swampcat family.