Border Star Montessori

The Kansas City, Missouri School District (KCMSD) has moved into the next phase of its historic “Right Sizing the District” effort by naming its principals for the upcoming 2010-2011 School Year.

The newly-appointed principals are a diverse mix of existing KCMSD staff members and experienced newcomers, according to Superintendent John W. Covington.

“Strong schools are a product of strong leadership. As the District moves forward with its Transformation Plan, these individuals will be the cornerstone to building schools capable of fostering teaching and learning worthy of the new millennium,”Covington said. “These individuals will begin work with high expectations and a firm mandate to build instructional teams that generate measurable student achievement.”

The principals for the 2010-2011 School Year are as follows:

Elementary Schools             Principal              Former Assignment
Attucks                                 Ben Boothe#         DeSoto, Kan. Schools

Banneker                             Karol Howard      Pitcher

Border Star                         Tina Langston      Border Star

Carver                                  Rie Clark                Swinney

Faxon                                   Derald Davis        Pinkerton

Foreign Language              Carol Allman        FLA

Garcia                                  Joe Marlow          Vice Principal, Paseo

Garfield                               Doug White          Longfellow

Gladstone                           Dana Carter         Gladstone

Hartman                              Jessie Kirksey      Hartman

*Holliday                            TBD

James                                   Jo Nemeth              McCoy

Longfellow                          Marques Stewart#    Tuscaloosa, AL

Melcher                                April Flowers        Melcher

Paige                                    Chester Palmer     KCMSA

Phillips                                Deloris Brown       Phillips

*Pitcher                                TBD

Rogers                                  Wendy McNitt       Rogers

Trailwoods                          Craig Waters        Trailwoods

Troost                                Judith Jordan-Campbell      Troost

Weeks/King                      Philomina Harshaw             Richardson

*Wheatley                         TBD

*Whittier                           TBD

Placement TBD                   Vickie Murillo                      Banneker

High Schools                    Principal                        Former Assignment
Central                             Linda Collins                Northeast
Delano                             Jennifer Malone           Delano
East                                   Tommy Herrera            East
*Lincoln College Prep     TBD
Northeast                         Marshall Peeples        Principal, ACE Upper Campus

Paseo Academy               Dennis Walker             Principal, LCP Middle

Southwest                         Steve Scraggs                Steve Scraggs

*At this time, five positions remain unfilled as the District continues to search for the best and brightest administrators.

# – Denotes a new KCMSD employee.

Principals will be given the autonomy to hire their assistant principals and staff for the upcoming school year.

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Dear All,

Here is an overview of last night’s meeting with Jeff McDaniels and concerned parents regarding the hiring of Principals throughout the District.

Mr McDaniels was asked to conduct a meeting for parents to disseminate information regarding the process of hiring and placing Principals in all schools for the upcoming school year.  He basically explained that the Board Policy of having Parent participation and input into this process was overruled due to the scope of the process.  It is unprecedented that all Principals were terminated and offered the chance to reapply.  Therefore the sheer magnitude of trying to fill positions in the remaining schools and the short timeframe in which to do so meant at this point in time Parent participation was being excluded.

A large number of the parents that attended this meeting had views regarding this and the over-riding opinion was that regardless of the decision made to exclude parents, the communication or lack thereof was the most offending and important issue.  Mr McDaniels agreed to take this back to the administration and also to the Strategic Planning team that was covering Customer Service.  Transparent communication between the Administration and Parents (both ways) was the key to gaining trust, respect and ultimately constructive parental participation.

DAC asked that the Administration use the DAC Body as a conduit to clear and efficient communication between them and all Parents, rather than information being disseminated through various different groups via different methods and ultimately the message being lost.

Paula Busser (paulabusser@yahoo.com)
Border Star SAC Chair

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