New Principals

A number, actually a Large number, of schools will have new principals next year, although not all of those principal appointments have been announced.

As we get answers, it will be Stacey Loftin at Coe, we get questions, who will it be at Southshore?

Let's put together a list. We talk about churn in the principal's offices, let's get a measure of it.

Comments

seattle said…
Hale is in need of two Assistant Principals, and neither has been announced yet.

Hale got a new principal, Jill Hudson, last year. The principal before her was Marni Campbell who was there for two (or was it 3?) years.

Talk about churn and burn...
Maureen said…
Do we know who the new "Ed Directors" (or whatever they are calling them) are? Phil Brockman is taking a job as an "Executive Director of Schools" but is that one of many or is he leading the new "Ed Directorish types?"
grousefinder said…
West Seattle High School...Principal and two Assistant Principals gone. Fact check please...I cannot keep my rumors straight at this time of year.
MapleLeafer said…
Hale's new AP's have been announced - one has been the Dean of Students at Rainer Beach and the other is coming from Baltimore and has been a principal before coming to Seattle.
SP said…
It would be interesting to track which positions are going through a site-based hiring process and which are top-down appointed, without going through the hiring pool even (a la Madison recently).

At Hale, were the AP's district appointed?

Question about the new Ed Directors-
Recently I saw a chart with the 5 (?) new regions which listed which schools were in that region (elementary, MS & HS, including option schools etc) that each Ed Director would be in charge of.

Unfortunately I didn't save it- does anyone have a link for it?
Thanks!
seattle said…
What are the new Hale AP's names?

Is one of them, George Breland, current Dean of Students at RBHS? He was AP at the African American Academy until they closed and then went to RBHS as Dean.

Did Hale staff have a say in who was hired?

My kid goes to Hale and I've not heard a word about it.
Meg said…
the one's announced have been (please correct me if I'm wrong):

1. Madrona (Farah Thaxton replacing Kaaren Andrews)
2. Interagency (Kaaren Andrews replacing Susan Derse)
3. McGilvra (Mary Lane replacing interim principal Birgit McShane who was a mid-year replacement of DeWanda Cook-Weaver)
4. Green Lake (Joanne Bowers replacing Chery Grinager)
5. Bagley (has it been announced? The current, highly praised principal has apparently decided to return to teaching)
5. Ballard
6. North Beach (Joanne Bowers is moving to Green Lake, so presumably there will be a new principal for North Beach)
7. Lawton (again, has it been announced? They had Beverley Raines, and then I thought a mid-year interim principal of Kathy Bledsoe; I don't know if the plan was just for her to finish the year, the way it was for McShane at McGilvra)
8. Hay (Karen Hanson replacing Dan Warren, who is heading to Queen Anne Elementary)
9. Center School (Oksana Britsova - Lisa Escobar left mid-year for RBHS)
10. West Seattle Elementary? I don't know.
11. West Seattle HS, as everyone's alredy mentioned.

That's just what I can think of off the top of my head. Well... okay. I have a spreadsheet. Because I am a nerrrrrrd.
I saw Marni Campbell at the Board meeting and asked her if she was ever going to be a principal again. She smiled and said, "someday I hope" and something to the effect of getting things on track for Special Ed.

She was a pretty good principal and I thought they might tap her to come back. But given the need to get Special Ed right, I think they'll leave her there.
Huh ?? said…
Re: Lawton. Interim Principal Kathy Bledsoe is only staying the through the end of the year and Beverly Raines is retiring. They will get to hire a new pricipal, interviews occurring over the summer. The intent is for the new principal to start in September and Kathy Bledsoe is on board to help the new principal make the transition sometime over the summer.
TechyMom said…
Lowell is supposed to get an AP due to high enrollment. I don't know if the position has been filled.
Charlie Mas said…
Meg, I presumed that you had a spreadsheet. I'm only curious about how you have it sorted.
Moose said…
Some additions/corrections to keep your spreadsheet nifty and current, Meg.

8. Dan Warren is going to Sand Point Elementary.

12. Sherrie Encarnacion is stepping down at South Shore. No replacement named yet.

13. Coe -- David Elliott to Queen Anne Elementary. Stacey Loftin from Edmonds School District is replacing Elliott.
Gail said…
What happened to Sherris E.? Has this been announced publicly?
Elizabeth said…
Bagley: not hired yet. we're doing a site based hire, not appointment (whew).
Meg said…
Charlie - By school, by year, with name, back to 1998. Because mid-year changes don't show up on annual reports, I don't have those until this year. Mostly, I was plugging data and noticed it, and plugged it in case I wanted to see if there was a correlation between school leadership and [put your mad lib for whatever here] later on.

I didn't have the leadership change at South Shore down. Does anyone know if there is a particular reason for it?

I forgot to note that David Elliot is leaving Coe... and Dan Warren is going to Sand Point, not QA.
WendyJ said…
Just got a letter today from my kids school that their principal will not be returning next year to be with her family more. They go to Wedgwood. She's not sure what her new position will be in SPS
Charlie Mas said…
So how many changes are we talking about here? Less than 20?

And how many were there last year? About 20 then also?

Does that much really qualify as "churn"?
lendlees said…
TechyMom-

Lowell is getting an AP, but goodness knows when it will be announced. And of course it won't be funded until October 1 when the district realizes that Lowell will really have ~70 more students than they budgeted for.
seattle citizen said…
Charlie, if we can set a rough number of 100 principals (90 school and 10 program?) then 20 is, uh, 20%. 40% in two years.

That seems like a lot.

Another data point would be which schools saw how many principal changes in how many years.

Also, the under-discussed turnover of APs bears more attention - these are often as much, or more, connected to the students on a day-to-day basis.

I think there's quite a bit of churn.
ParentofThree said…
I think there were about 25 (counting up from an old post) last spring. Then toss in all the mid-year re-assignments (Coe, Hay, Center, Lawton, Madrona, McGivera) you are up to about 30.
Now add in this years another 7 added to the list and nearly 40 schools have been impacted in one year June-June.

Plus all the APs.

Not sure what the magic number is to qualify as churn, but I think they are close.
seattle citizen said…
For everything - churn, churn, churn
There is a reason - churn, churn, churn
a time for every purpose under Broad Superintendents

A time to be tested, a time to be drilled,
A time to switch principals, a time to switch seats,
A time to recite (8:47), a time to sit still,
A time to line up, a time to weep

To everything - churn, churn, churn
There is a reason - churn, churn, churn
And a time for every WASL, MAP and line graph.

A time to build up, a time to break down
A time to transfer, a time to redact,
A time to cast away criticisms,
A time to gather foundations and "nonprofits" together

...A time to gain, a time to lose
A time to rend, a time to sew
A time to love, a time to hate
A time of peace, I swear it's not too late!"
Moose said…
@Gail -- South Shore principal told the PTA that she was stepping down for family reasons.
SP said…
...outgoing principal news (sorry, no Fri. open posting yet?):

Check out the West Seattle blog for June 16th 4:57pm West Seattle HS Graduation (comments section):
http://westseattleblog.com/2010/06/happening-now-west-seattle-high-school-class-of-2010-graduation

Apparently there's a big stom brewing at the school because the outgoing principal paid $4,000+ for the graduation speaker. Does anyone know if other high schools paid even a fraction of this amount for a speaker?

And the worst of it is that he took the funds from the student's ASB account to pay for the speaker, specifically against all their verbal & written protests!

The WS Blog says they are following up with the district about the use of these ASB funds. Even if a principal has the right to take money out of the student's ASB accounts, how could he do it against their express protests?

It's a shame that a principal will leave his school's students with that as their last impression and memories. In his graduation speach, the principal called the paid speaker his "gift" to the senior class!

New principal & AP principal news for WSHS: no postings yet on the SPS website for any of these open positions. Does that mean that the district will appoint all 3 positions?
speducator said…
Principal Ann Gray is leaving Highland Park Elementary to move to the Federal Way School District.
gavroche said…
If you add all the updated principal moves listed on this thread with the list below (which covers from May 2009 onward), I think the answer is clearly, yes, there has been a lot of principal churn on Goodloe-Johnson's watch.

That's a lot of disruption that's hard to justify.

Principal shuffles on Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson’s watch 2009-10:

May 2009: Roy Merca from Summit (closed) to AS1, Ernie Severs from AS1 to Sanislo, Debbie Nelson from Sanislo to Jane Addams, Chris Carter from African American Academy (closed) to Jane Addams to Hamilton Middle School, Dewanda Cook-Weaver from Lowell to McGilvra Elem. to ??, Jo Shapiro from McGilvra Elem. to assistant principal at Hamilton Middle School, Wayne Floyd from John Stanford Center central office to Loyal Heights, Cashel Toner from Loyal Heights to Leschi Elem., Jo Lute-Ervin from Leschi to TOPS, Linda Robinson from Bryant to Whittier, Cothron McMillian from Whittier to Brighton, Ed Noh from Lawton to Hawaii?; Beverly Raines from Brighton Elem. to Lawton Elem. to retirement?, Gregory King from TT Minor (closed) to Lowell, Julie Briedenbach from Lowell Elem. to Thurgood Marshall Elem., Winifred Todd from Thurgood Marshall to Dunlap, Greg Imel from Dunlap to Bailey Gatzert, Norma Zavala from Bailey Gatzert to Concord, Sandra Scott from Concord to Hawthorne, Stacey McCrath-Smith was moved from Meany.

July 2009: Jill Hudson to Nathan Hale High School , Henterson Carlisle assigned interim principal of Madison Middle School .

Jan 2010: Kaaren Andrews from Madrona K-8 to the Interagency School, Cheryl Grinager from Green Lake Elementary to McDonald Elem. (to be reopened), David Elliott from Coe Elem to Old Hay (to be reopened)Dan Warren from John Hay to Sand Point (to be reopened).

Feb/March 2010: DeWanda Cook-Weaver from McGilvra, Beverly Raines from Lawton . May 2010: Oksana Britsova to the Center School, Karen Hanson to John Hay Elem., Farah Thaxton to Madrona K-8, Mary Lane to McGilvra Elem. Joanne Bowers from North Beach Elementary to Green Lake Elementary. (Of these, I believe only one replaced a retiring principal, Clara Scott from TOPS, and one who went on leave on her own accord, Katie Cryan Learie from Hamilton, and then two who may have been forced out: D. Cook-Weaver and B. Raines. As of May 14, 2010, Coe Elementary and Lawton Elementary remain without principal assignments for the new school year.)

Sources: Seattle Times, Seattle Public Schools , and Seattle Public Schools Community Blog,

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/PrintStory.pl?document_id=2008726291&zsection_id=2003749464&slug=webprincipals09m&date=20090209

http://www.seattleschools.org/area/news/0910/20100111_principal_appointments.pdf

http://www.seattleschools.org/area/news/0910/20100512_principal_appointments.pdf


(from Seattle Ed 2010: http://seattle-ed.blogspot.com/2010/05/can-seattles-schools-afford-many-more_18.html)

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