McLaughlin Academy of Excellence - In Our Schools

Debra Wright Hudson is the principal at McLaughlin Academy of Excellence, a school that is working hard to improve its standing.

Wright Hudson has a special source of motivation: Every day she passes through the school’s memorial hallway and is faced with a mosaic bearing the name of her late father, Clint Wright, a renowned educator who served with PCPS and the Lake Wales Charter Schools system.

“When I first came here I was just in awe when I saw my father’s name,” Wright Hudson said. “Every morning, I have to come through this door and be reminded of his great legacy, and how I have work to do here to continue that greatness that he placed in me.”

McLaughlin’s staff has been encouraged by the new principal’s arrival. “If she’s anything like her dad, we’re in great hands,” teacher Johnnie Kirkland says. “With two Wrights, you can’t get it wrong.”