About three dozen Duval County Public School principals will start at a new school this fall, bringing the total count of principal changes in the district for the year to nearly 50.The district released the list of 35 new principal assignments over the weekend.
Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said he met with each principal individually last week to inform them of the changes. The district also held faculty meetings at each school to discuss it. The last meeting was held Friday.
“None of these changes represent change for the sake of change,” Vitti said. “ Instead it’s a continuing review of putting the right people on the bus and them having to be on the right seat on the bus.”
Vitti said the moves were focused particularly on improving leadership at the middle school level where student enrollment continues to lag.
“Our data indicates that we’re losing when it comes from elementary to middle school that transition and I think a lot of that has to do with leadership,” he said.
Next year, four veteran elementary school principals will move to middle school positions.
Chris Begley will go from Loretto Elementary to Lake Shore Middle; Kim Bays will move from her principal position at San Pablo to head Kernan Middle; and Tamara Williams will move from Pine Forest Elementary to become principal of Butler’s new all-female academy. She will be joined by Sam Scavella, who formerly served in Atlanta as principal of Booker T. Washington High School of Health Science and Nutrition.
Four other principals will arrive from outside Duval County and as far away as Colorado. Eric Paul, the South Florida Regional Director of Charter Schools USA, will assume a new post as the principal of Ed White High School.
Students and parents will get a chance to meet the new principals this week.
Coupled with 14 mid-year switches made by Vitti in January, the district has seen a total of 49 principal changes this year.
The new administrators will officially assume their new positions the Monday after this school year ends.
Here is the full list of new principal assignments for 2014-15:
- Abess Park: Kristen Shore
- Alden Road: Lindsey Sharpe
- Annie Morgan: Lashaun Streeter
- Bridge To Success Middle: Aleya Prier
- Butler (boys): Sam Scavella (Atlanta)
- Butler (girls): Tamara Williams
- Cedar Hills: Marva McKinney
- Chaffee Trail: Casie Doyle
- Dept. of Juvenile Justice: Ed Robinson
- Don Brewer: Jennifer Gray
- Duval Virtual: Mark Ertel
- Ed White: Eric Paul (Charter USA/West Palm Beach)
- EBD Elementary: Jennifer Brown
- EBD Secondary: Vontrena Myers
- Garden City: Barbara Gerdes
- GRASP: Amanda Sauer (Colorado)
- G.W. Carver: Katrina Riley (New Orleans)
- Holiday Hill: Tammy Haberman
- Hyde Park: Tarsha Mitchell
- JEB Stuart: Sadie Milner Smith
- Kernan Middle: Kim Bays
- LaVilla: Lianna Knight
- Lakeshore: Chris Begley
- Long Branch: Viveca Brown
- Loretto: Kristie Kemp
- Love Grove: Tiffany Emanuel-Wright
- Mattie V. Rutherford: Maurice Nesmith
- Merrill Road: Jene Alexander
- Pine Forest: Stephanie Jackson
- Ribault Sr.: Chris Jackson
- San Pablo: Stephanie Manabat
- San Jose: Misael Nascimento (New York)
- Seabreeze: Tina Bennett
- S.P. Livingston: Megan Byerly
- Venetia: Jennifer Collins
You can follow Rhema Thompson on Twitter @RhemaThompson.
