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Seven Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools, including Vance High, are getting new principals, interim Superintendent Hugh Hattabaugh told the school board Tuesday.
The announcements came during Hattabaugh’s last week on the job. He has been consulting with Heath Morrison, who takes over as superintendent July 1.
• Melissa Dunlap, principal of Martin Luther King Middle School, becomes principal of Vance High, a school with about 1,800 students in northeast Charlotte. Vance Principal Valarie Williams was recently transferred to Whitewater Middle.
• Jennifer Dean, principal at Bailey Middle, will take over the top job at King Middle.
• Patricia Riska, who was recently principal at Polo Ridge Elementary and was moved to a special assignment this spring, becomes principal at Highland Mill Montessori, a magnet serving prekindergarten through sixth grade.
• Nizy John, assistant principal at Ballantyne Elementary, becomes principal at Polo Ridge.
• Kevin Sudimack, assistant principal at Ranson Middle, was named principal at Kennedy Middle.
• Margaret Scott, who is a New Leaders resident principal at Sedgefield Elementary, becomes principal at University Meadows Elementary. New Leaders is a national program that recruits and prepares principals for urban schools.
• Jason Bissinger, assistant principal at Dilworth Elementary, was named principal at Winget Park Elementary.
CMS has seen an unusual number of principal changes in the past year, and vacancies still remain.
No principal was named Tuesday for West Charlotte High, the showcase in a public-private partnership to boost graduation rates there and improve the eight schools that feed into West Charlotte. Principal Shelton Jefferies resigned to take a job with Union County Schools.
Nor was anyone appointed to top central-office vacancies. Morrison has been interviewing candidates and had said he could bring contracts to the school board as early as this week. The board’s next scheduled meeting is July 24.
