(Photo courtesy of Dallas ISD)
East Dallas schools under the Woodrow Wilson High School umbrella are in an era of principal transition.
J.L. Long Middle School, Stonewall Jackson Elementary and Mount Auburn Elementary all had new principals at the start of the 2015-16 school year. Lakewood Elementary has said goodbye to three principals in four years, with the most recent leaving mid-spring, and a new one was just named.
Woodrow itself said goodbye to principal Kyle Richardson at the end of the spring semester, named a new principal, and then lost him within a couple of weeks. The district has not yet named a replacement.
Principal turnover also was just announced at Robert E. Lee Elementary and Mata Montessori School. Lee’s principal, Bridget Ransom, was “promoted” at the end of the school year, according to a parent letter from executive director of the Woodrow Wilson feeder pattern, Tracie Fraley, who noted that Ransom would be “moving to a larger elementary school” and “not only will she earn more money, she will get to have at least one assistant principal, a community liaison and other resources that come with the leadership of a larger school.”
Two weeks later, another letter from Fraley named Bert Hart as the new principal. Hart spent the past year as Lakewood Elementary’s assistant principal and had been serving as interim principal in Principal Toni Goodman’s absence. Hart also was assistant principal at Stonewall from 2010-2015.
Mata Montessori Principal Claudia Vega said goodbye to her community on Monday in a letter explaining that she is returning to Sunset High School, her alma mater and the place where she began her teaching career. Vega helmed the launch of Mata, Dallas ISD’s first choice school, and told families she has “mixed emotions” but “Sunset and the Oak Cliff community are home for me.” The school soon will take steps to name a new principal.
That makes Lipscomb Elementary School Principal Roxanne Cheek, who has led the school for three years, the longest-serving principal in the Woodrow feeder pattern.
