Wayne County Schools principals get new assignments for this fall
By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on June 20, 2007 1:46 PM
Six Wayne County schools will have new principals in the fall, while more than a dozen assistant principals were also shifted around the school system.
The administrative changes were announced Tuesday at a special called meeting of the Board of Education.
The recent retirement of three principals -- Alex Wingate at Northwest Elementary, Larry Dean at Greenwood Middle and Eddie Radford at Charles B. Aycock High schools -- accounted for half of the open leadership slots.
Four of the six new administrators were serving this past school year as assistant principals.
Dr. Earl Moore will be new principal at Aycock, where he previously taught business and marketing for 23 years prior to going into school administration. He was assistant principal at Meadow Lane for one year and, since July 2003, has served as principal at Brogden Middle School.
He holds a bachelor's degree in business education from Fayetteville State University, a master's in school administration from East Carolina University and a doctorate in education from NOVA Southeast-ern University.
Theresa Cox, principal at Belfast Academy since January 2006, will be assigned to Northwest Elementary, where she had been assistant principal from July 2001 until July 2004. She was assistant principal at Dillard Middle from July 2004 until January 2006.
Her educational background includes being a North Carolina Teaching Fellow and a North Carolina Principal Fellow. She holds a bachelor's degree in English from University of North Chapel at Greensboro and a master's of school administration from Fayetteville State University. She also taught middle school language arts in Wayne and Pitt county schools.
The remaining new principals include Rolanda Best, John Twitty, Karen Wellington and Gail Sasser.
Ms. Best will be principal at Greenwood, where she has been assistant principal since March. A North Carolina Principal Fellow, she was named assistant principal at Spring Creek Elementary in July 2003. She also taught middle and high school math at Southern Wayne High and Spring Creek high schools for 17 1/2 years.
She holds a bachelor's degree in math and a master's in school administration, both from East Carolina University.
Twitty replaces Ms. Cox at Belfast, moving from assistant principal at Eastern Wayne High, where he has been since July 2005. Retired from the military, he also has one year experience as assistant principal at Mount Olive Middle and taught language arts at Belfast and Brogden Middle schools.
He has a bachelor 's degree from Troy State University with certification in language arts from ECU and a master's degree in school administration from the University of Phoenix.
Ms. Wellington moves from assistant principal at Meadow Lane to principal at Brogden Middle. She was also assistant principal at Goldsboro Middle School for one year beginning in 2002. Prior to that, she taught math and held interim principal roles in Wayne and Wilson counties.
A North Carolina Teaching Fellow, she earned a bachelor's degree in math from North Carolina Central University and a master's in school administration from ECU.
Ms. Sasser will become principal at Mount Olive Middle. Since July 2004 she has been assistant principal at Goldsboro Middle. Before that, she taught language arts and social studies at Grantham School for 15 years.
Her educational background includes a bachelor of arts degree in sociology with certification in early childhood and intermediate education and a master's in school administration from N.C. State University.
Two changes were also made at the administrative offices for the school system.
Jane Walston will replace Dr. Marlee Ray, who recently retired as director of exceptional children/instructional support services.
Mrs. Walston has worked in that department since 1996, serving as coordinator of the academically and intellectually gifted program and a program specialist. She has a bachelor's degree in special education from the University of North Carolina and a master's degree in learning disabilities and administrative certification from ECU.
Gail Herring was named director of elementary education, a newly formed position splintering what used to be part of the job held by Hope Meyerhoeffer, who also handles English-as-a-second-language visual arts, English and language arts and effective schools. Ms. Herring, who holds a master's in school administration from Campbell University, previously worked in Duplin County Schools in the same capacity.
A total of 14 assistant principal changes were made, including one principal and six newly minted to the role.
Craig Uzzell, who has been principal at several area schools, including Belfast Academy and Mount Olive Middle until recently, moves to Eastern Wayne Middle as assistant to Cathy Eubanks, whom he had replaced as principal at Mount Olive Middle two years ago.
According to school officials, Uzzell also teaches driver's education and had requested a less demanding administrative role.
Other assistant principal moves included Keith Faison from Carver Elementary to Mount Olive Middle; Lanita Ivery from Mount Olive Middle to Carver Elementary; Tonya Faison from Norwayne Middle to Spring Creek Elementary; Mary Kay James from Northwest Elementary to Greenwood Middle; Ryan Nelson from North Drive Elementary to Eastern Wayne High; Charles Smith from Eastern Wayne Middle to Northwest Elementary; and Diane Watts from Aycock to Norwayne.
New assistant principals include Tameka Allen at Meadow Lane; Jessica Anderson at Aycock; Nicole Barrett at Goldsboro Intermediate; Charlenna Carter, North Drive; Kevin Smith at Spring Creek High; and Karen Stevens at Dillard Middle.