“Anyone associated with the district who fails to grasp the severity of our current condition is, at the very least, delusional,” Stanton E. Lawrence, superintendent of the Normandy School District, said to all district staff recently in a statement announcing a reorganization plan intended to save the struggling, provisionally accredited from State takeover.
Last week, Lawrence put his tough talk into tough action. He announced that only three of the district’s 11 principals would return to the schools they led this past school year.
One district principal has been reassigned to a new school, a program director has also been given principal responsibilities, an assistant principal in the district has been promoted to principal at a different school, four new principals will be brought in from outside the district, and one principal position remains open.
Normandy principals returning in their same roles are Netra Taylor (Bel Nor Elementary School), Robin Vaulx-Williams (Jefferson Elementary School) and Curt Green (Normandy High school).
The returning principal with a new assignment is Bryan Cannon, who has been moved from Normandy Middle School to the new Normandy 9th Grade Center. Kathryn Garrett, director of Early Childhood Services, will also be the new principal at Normandy Kindergarten/Early Childhood Center. And Calvin Nicholas, currently an associate principal at the high school, will be the new principal of the Normandy Positive Alternative Learning Center.
New to the district will be Lynette Hookfin and Marcellars Mason, both moving north from the Houston Independent School District; Angela Kinlaw, heading east from the San Diego Unified School District; and Roger LeBlanc, with a long trek southeast from the Anchorage School District in Alaska.
Hookfin will be the new Normandy Middle School principal after working 13 years in Houston, most recently as principal of Cullen Middle School. Mason will be the new Washington Elementary School principal after 25 years in Houston working at all grade levels, most recently as assistant principal of Bellaire High School. Kinlaw will be the new principal at Garfield Elementary School/Pine Lawn Elementary School after 10 years in other positions, most recently as vice principal of Herbert Hoover High School in San Diego. LeBlanc will be principal of Lucas Crossing Elementary Complex after serving 10 years as a principal, most recently of Fairview Elementary School in Anchorage.
The principal position at Bel Ridge Elementary, currently held by Sonya Murray, had not been filled. A spokesperson for the district said it was her understanding that Murray would not return.
The timing of the announcement seems odd, with the Bel Ridge position still unfilled and Normandy schools still in session until June 7. The spokesperson pointed out that the new fiscal year starts on July 1 and “we wanted to get everything out there.”
The district’s reorganization plan includes relatively minor changes in the upper echelons of administration. Lawrence remains superintendent and his two assistant superintendents remain in place, though with new titles: James L. Henderson is now chief administrative officer and Leon Fisher is now chief operations officer.
There are also two newly created senior administrative positions: director of Elementary Education and director of Secondary Education.
The new director of Elementary Education is Sharon Williams, who comes to the district from Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools with 10 years of educational experience, including as “Urban School Turn-around Specialist” for one of Nashville’s failing elementary public schools.
The new director of Secondary Education is Aubrey Todd, another Houston import; she currently serves as principal of Madison High School, one of Houston Independent School District’s largest high schools, and has 26 years of experience in education.
In a statement, Lawrence said these “cabinet members” will work with him to “identify other members of the Normandy School District staff as we work through the district’s reorganization plan.”