Principal Assignments

The Superintendent announced these principal assignments today:

Appointments:

* Kelly Aramaki to Beacon Hill International School (Susie Murphy is retiring)

* Anitra Pinchback-Jones to Rainier View, which opens this fall

* Lisa Escobar to Viewlands, which opens this fall

* Dr. Robert Gary to Principal-on-special-assignment at
Interagency Academy, joining Kaaren Andrews

Note: Pinchback-Jones has been at Bagley Elementary, Lisa Escobar and Robert Gary have been at RBHS.  Also, the word is that Bryant will either have an assistant principal or head teacher and not continue having two principals.

The following individuals have served in an Interim role this year and are officially being appointed as principal. In each case the ExecutiveDirector of Schools gathered feedback from staff, families and communitybefore making these recommendations:

* Keven Wynkoop at Ballard

* Kelley Archer at Stevens

* Keisha Scarlett at South Shore

* Chris Cronas at Wedgwood

* Ruth Medsker at West Seattle High School
 
Positions currently open - an interview process will be conducted:

* John Stanford International

* Bagley

* Rainier Beach
 

Comments

Jan said…
I hadn't realized that Ruth Medsker was at WSHS on an interim basis. I know there have been some less than flattering remarks about her leadership style/qualities/whatever. I am curious. If there are WSHS parents posting, what do parents think of her leadership this year?
3/18/11, 4:15 PM
zb said…
Hey, great, Bill Gates can be Ranier Beach's principal after all. Or maybe Melinda Gates.
3/18/11, 4:46 PM
dan dempsey said…
Anitra Pinchback-Jones was at WSHS for three years prior to her move to Bagley.

Note: This year at WSHS it was entirely new administrative team, as Principal Bruce Bivins went to California, and the two assistants also left.

.... it was said:
"All these moves appear to be the beginning of (attempts at) fixing the former supt's work.
3/18/11, 4:50 PM
speducator said…
The "on special assignment" position for Bob Gary smells fishy to me. Is this another situation where the district is creating a position for someone they don't know what else to do with?
3/18/11, 6:00 PM
Just askin... said…
Good one ZB. Now if only they can relieve some ineffective current principals from their positions.
3/18/11, 7:21 PM
Just askin said…
And fix some of MGJ mishaps in the placement/promotion of incompetent principals...
3/18/11, 7:22 PM
Maureen said…
I knew Ms. Pinchback-Jones' name was familiar. In 2006, the Seattle Times published this article about her success at the African American Academy:

She got their parents involved. She kept students after school until 5:30 four days a week, and if they complained that other kids didn't have to work as hard, she told them: "Success looks different."

Of those 20 students, 18 — or 90 percent — passed the math, reading and writing sections of the WASL in the fourth grade. Districtwide, only 20 percent of African-American fourth-graders passed all three sections. Their class beat the district's average for all fourth-graders — 47.2 percent.
3/18/11, 9:42 PM
dan dempsey said…
Maureen,

Thanks for sharing. I was at WSHS in 2006-2007, which was Ms. Pinchback-Jones first year as an assistant principal there. I found her supportive of my efforts and she had a great manner in dealing with students.

The prior year it was Susan Derse - principal
Bob Court- asst. prin.
Betty Gray- asst. prin.

Then it went to principal for a while in 2006-2007 ... until eventually Bruce Bivins arrived and became permanent.

You will notice it is three brand new admin this year.

Amazing CHURN.
3/19/11, 12:36 AM
Charlie Mas said…
If these are all of the principal changes, then it represents significantly less churn than we saw under Superintendent Goodloe-Johnson.

Are the Executive Directors making these principal assignments?
3/19/11, 9:57 AM
wsnorth said…
The churn at WSHS has been terrible. Bivins was a disaster, as was the principal before him. I have heard positive/mixed comments about Medsker, but anything would be an improvement, so the bar is not that high. It seems RBHS is in a similar situation - can't the district provide some incentive for the "great" principals to go work at the "lousy" schools? It looks like the RBHS principals are just being "disbursed" - if they couldn't hack it there, shouldn't they just be fired?
3/19/11, 10:45 PM
Anonymous said…
Off topic, an informative article in this mornings paper: D.C. official says little on Seattle schools fiasco he left behind.

A friend to Seattle
3/20/11, 6:17 AM
SolvayGirl said…
wsnorth—Lisa Escobar was a very affective principal at The Center School. She impressed me immensely when we toured there. It was the threat of closure that kept us away.
She was cursed by being placed at RBHS as Gary's co-principal. The District should have known the community would not accept her. I was shocked to see her placed at an elementary as she was successful at two high schools—Center and NOVA.
3/20/11, 2:36 PM
Po3 said…
RBHS principals have to be moved to qualify for fed funding.
3/20/11, 4:22 PM
Anonymous said…
Now Interagency will have two dysfunctual principals. Interagency seems to get staff and administrators no other school wants.....what a shame.

Polly
4/1/11, 7:05 PM
When will it stop? said…
Anitra Jones was run out of Bagley. She was in the pocket of the former sup. so on her way out her buddy gave her a new school.
6/18/11, 5:22 PM
Anonymous said…
Anitra Pinchback-Jones is an evil person! she should not work with people and especially not children! She has her sights set on Superintendent! Oh what a disaster that would be!? I have never before worked under a boss so demeaning, belittling, controlling and cruel! Goodloe-Johnson gave her a school where parents are not involved-so they don't see the torture their kids are put through! Karma will hit her hard-and hopefully soon!
4/9/14, 7:47 AM
Anonymous said…
The last two comments by "When will it stop?" and "Anonymous" seem to be what I'm hearing about Anitra Pinchback-Jones' time at Rainier View this year. EVIL sums it up! This blog should look into it...
6/5/14, 8:18 PM
Anonymous said…
In support of the above statements about Anitra Pinchback-Jones and her time at Rainier View Elementary, I felt compelled to write this statement. Test scores at Rainier View are inflated by methods such as: students study only math one month prior to Smarter Balance Assessment. During this time, there is no reading, science, writing, art, etc. The same thing occurs when the students take the ELA portion of the SBAC. This is not a healthy student learning environment! Principal Anitra Pinchback-Jones gets a great deal of praise from the district for the high test scores, which is why her cruelty toward teachers/staff has not been given adequate attention. All of this creates an unhealthy learning environment for the students. Please help...
12/21/15, 4:37 PM
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12/3/20, 7:59 PM
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