Principal, vice principal honors

Mellisa Forsyth

Two Marion County Public Schools leaders recently were named top school administrators.

Melissa Forsyth, the principal of Liberty Middle School in southwest Marion County, is the 2021 Marion County Principal of the Year. Rebecca Miller, an assistant principal at Marion Oaks Elementary, was named Marion County’s 2021 Assistant Principal of the Year.

Forsyth became principal at Liberty Middle in 2017, after serving there as assistant principal. She joined the district in 2005 and was Marion County’s 2008 Rookie Teacher of the Year. She is a graduate of North Marion High and holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in social science education and education leadership from the University of Central Florida and Saint Leo University, respectively. She leads more than 1,300 students at Liberty Middle and directs teaching throughout the school’s Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) program.

Rebecca Miller

Miller graduated from Vanguard High and holds degrees in elementary education from the University of Central Florida and educational leadership from Saint Leo University. She joined the district in 2010 as a teacher at South Ocala Elementary and worked at Fort King Middle and Ward-Highlands Elementary. She helps direct learning for more than 800 students at Marion Oaks.

Forsyth and Miller now advance to the state competition, in which the Florida Department of Education will select Florida’s 2021 Principal and Assistant Principal of the Year.