1 in 4 MSCS schools getting new principals; new communication, safety leaders announced
About 1 in 4 schools are getting a new principal in the Memphis-Shelby County Schools district's traditional schools, the 40 positions among several new hires which also include changes to the district's school safety team and its top cabinet leadership.
Superintendent Joris Ray announced the new hires Tuesday at a board meeting, pointing out the district also made leadership changes at the three Achievement School District schools in Frayser returning to MSCS from the state oversight in the fall. Most of the appointments are internal hires.
At the cabinet level, replacing recently departed chief of communications Jerica Phillips is Cathryn Stout, currently the editor at Chalkbeat Tennessee, a nonprofit education news website with bureaus across the country. Stout is one of a handful of the hires announced Tuesday from outside the district.
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And Carolyn Jackson, recently announced as the interim leader of the district's safety and security, has become the permanent leader of the department. The previous leader, Gerald Darling, retired at the end of January after 13 years with the Memphis district.
“The best is yet to come,” Ray told the new hires. They received a standing round of applause in the board auditorium, where most of the seats were reserved and other meeting attendees were in an overflow room outside the auditorium.
MSCS has yet to announce the findings of a safety and security audit it announced in October after a student survived a shooting by a classmate in a school stairwell. Former Memphis Police Department chief Toney Armstrong was tasked with leading the review in October, on a contract written to not exceed $99,000 and to be complete at the end of June.
Jackson's department will include a new Deputy Chief of Safety and Security Greg Sanders. Sanders, a 29-year veteran of MPD, was previously the director of security. ; Director of Security, Terrence Riley and Director of Safety, Lakira Elliott, who have both already been working in the department.
A list of the director-level central office hires, provided by the school district is below.
In March, the district required scores of school-level employees to reapply to their jobs in "fresh starts," part of a new academic restructuring Ray embarked upon a year ago. The superintendent announced dozens of new hires last summer, too. Those were also mostly internal promotions.
Of the district's 214 schools, 56 are charter schools, leaving most of the others as schools directly run by the school district. Of those, 40 are receiving new principals for the upcoming school year, the district announced.
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Among them are Shenise Anderson, the current principal of Alton Elementary, which just ended its final school year and is closing as part of the district's Reimagining 901 facilities plan. Anderson will be the principal at AB Hill Elementary, where Alton Elementary students will be zoned moving forward.
Shady Grove Elementary School, a second school that just wrapped up its final year and will close, will see its recent principal, Nicholas Dominquez, as the new principal at Macon Hall Elementary.
This fall, Tennessee is returning the Frayser schools it directly oversaw to MSCS. Four schools operating in three buildings, the district's board voted to combine the schools that were in the same building. The new principals at those soon-to-be former Achievement School District schools are: Georgian Hills Elementary's new principal Derrick McIntosh, Whitney Elementary's new principal Vonda Beaty and at the newly combined Frayser/Corning Elementary, DeAnglea Graham.
All new principals are listed below.
New central office hires, as provided by MSCS:
Chief of Safety & Security: Carolyn Jackson
Deputy Chief of Safety & Security: Greg Sanders
Director of Security: Terrence Riley
Director of Safety: Lakira Elliott
Assistant Superintendent of High School: Docia Generette-Walker
Assistant Superintendent of Middle School: Daniel Jack
Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum & Instruction: Amie Marsh
Assistant Superintendent of Professional Learning & Support: Tracie Scott
Instructional Leadership Director: Terrence Brittenum
Instructional Leadership Director: Yvette Renfroe
Instructional Leadership Director: Phyllis Jones
Central Office Leadership Support: Ron Schuyler
Educational Technology Director: Robert Davis II
Director of Early Literacy: Lashanda Fason
Director of HS Innovation: Keenan Sloan
Director of HR Strategic Placement: Rod Peterson
New school principals:
AB Hill Elementary: Shenise Anderson
Alcy Elementary: Eureka McAfee
Balmoral-Ridgeway Elementary: Erika Lowe
Cordova Elementary: Tonya Miller
Crump Elementary: Tiffany Curry
Double Tree Elementary: Jacqueline Brown Lewis
Frayser/Corning Elementary: DeAnglea Graham
Georgian Hills Elementary: Derrick McIntosh
Hickory Ridge Elementary: Krystal Bledsoe
Keystone Elementary: Tia James
LaRose Elementary: Staci Hendrix
Lucie E. Campbell Elementary: Michael Gee
Macon Hall Elementary: Nicholas Dominquez
Rozelle Elementary: Taurus Hines
Whitney Elementary: Vonda Beaty
Winchester Elementary: James Patton
Dexter K-8: Patrick Certion
Hamilton K-8: Quay Jackson-Porter
A. Maceo Walker Middle: Leslie Banks
American Way Middle: Larissa Jackson
Colonial Middle: Kamiah Turner
Cordova Middle: Christopher Hardiman
Craigmont Middle: LaKeisha Haywood
Hickory Ridge Middle: James Gordon
Mt. Pisgah Middle: Danielle Berry-Leach
Raleigh Egypt Middle: Dione Curry
Ridgeway Middle: Kimberly Shaw
Sherwood Middle: Markenston Jean-Louis
Treadwell Middle: Brandon Hill
Woodstock Middle: Willie Bolden
Bolton High: Brandon Poyner
East High: Pamela McKinley
Germantown High: Jon Stencel
Melrose High: Derrick Hardaway
Ridgeway High: Philip Nelson
Southwind High: John Bush
Wooddale High: LaTonja Robinson
Kingsbury Career & Technical Center: Charisse Wooding
Sheffield Career & Technical Center: Timothy Batts
Southwest Career & Technical Center: William Taylor
Laura Testino covers education and children's issues for the Commercial Appeal. Reach her at laura.testino@commercialappeal.com or 901-512-3763. Find her on Twitter: @LDTestino
This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: MSCS getting new principals; new communication, safety leaders announced