3 New School Principals Face a Challenging Year

By KAREN JOLLY DAVIS
Cape Charles Wave

August 15, 2012

Northampton County Schools are starting the new school year with three new principals — one for each school in the County.

The new principals attended yesterday’s Northampton Board of Supervisors meeting, where they were introduced by Northampton Schools Superintendent Dr. Walter Clemons.

Alvin Coleman is the new principal at Northampton High. Previously he was a principal in the Hampton City school system.

Elizabeth Fennell is taking over at Kiptopeke Elementary. She comes from the Cleveland Metropolitan School District, where she was an assistant principal.

The new principal of Occohannock Elementary is Ron Yorko, moving from Northampton High, where he was assistant principal.

“I’m excited about what we’re about to do in the 2012/13 school year,” said Clemons. His new hires come after a year of turmoil in the school system, and two of the three schools are not expected to obtain full state accreditation.

Clemons told the Northampton supervisors that Occohannock Elementary will probably earn accreditation this year, but Kiptopeke Elementary does not meet state standards for its math scores, and may not be accredited.

Clemons said he expects Northampton High to receive provisional accreditation. It meets all academic requirements, but the drop-out rate is too high, he said.

“Kids are dropping out who are above the 18-year age of compulsory attendance,” said Clemons.

The County might also have trouble meeting federal school requirements.

“We have some disparities between different groups of kids,” Clemons said. “We’re not meeting the benchmarks for kids with disabilities.”

Most of the other staff vacancies are in the process of being filled. But, “we’re concerned about finding adequate housing” for the new hires, Clemons said.

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2 Responses to “3 New School Principals Face a Challenging Year”

  1. Betsy Mapp on August 15th, 2012 8:24 am

    Is adequate housing the excuse being given for why so few of the new hires live in this county? I am told that the new superintendent doesn’t live here and considers it no big deal. However, even a slight acquaintance with economics could easily demonstrate that salaries paid to residents circulate in the local economy rather than that of Virginia Beach or elsewhere. Here we have the top wage earners in the school system carrying home their quite large salaries to another area.
    It should be a requirement that the superintendent live in the county. How can he hope to really know the problems of our students if he is a stranger to the local populace? How can he “reach” these students if he doesn’t live here?

  2. Mika Nottingham on August 17th, 2012 12:49 am

    I understand the desire to have these positions filled by those who are from our county. Regardless of the economic acquaintance, though a stretch, I don’t believe the selection has as much to do about the new hires’ place of origin as it does with their skills and qualification. The Shore (especially the beloved Northampton) tends to march to a different beat in comparison to other thriving surrounding counties and it always hurts us in the end. Where else can the teachers (well respected teachers all the same) become overnight principals? I personally know several principals throughout DMV and they were all amazed at the developments in our county with regards to education over the past few years. Certainly, there may be a few qualified people under the rocks within Northampton County, but we’ve tried our way with our native ESVA residents and it hasn’t worked. The rest of the country seems to find a great bargain and better quality in outsourcing so hopefully the “come heres” will be able to invest in our children and families in a way that reverses the apparent deterioration. The bigger issue to me is that we’ve lost the Middle School and the program that sets kids off to a good foundation in education (elementary school) may not even be accredited. That scares me! Hope it all turns out to be a great change!