Almost a third of Clarke County’s 21 public schools will have new leadership next school year, as the school board moved to fill five of six vacancies at its June 8 meeting.
Gaines Elementary School principal Katrina Daniel was named director of the district’s alternative high school, Classic City, replacing David Cole, who retired. Daniels will be replaced by Robert Ezekiel, who’s currently assistant principal at Stroud Elementary and formerly served as assistant principal at Hilsman Middle School.
At Whit Davis Elementary—where Susan Tolbert left to take a job with the Commerce school district—Tanisha Sanders will take over. Sanders is assistant principal at Creekland Middle School in Gwinnett County, and formerly was assistant principal at Gwinnett’s Hopkins Elementary and an elementary-school teacher.
Melanie Sigler, the 2015 Georgia middle-school principal of the year, resigned from Burney-Harris-Lyons Middle School to accept a position in Jefferson. She’ll be replaced by Makeba Clark, a former assistant principal at BHL who most recently served as principal at Cousins Middle School in Covington.
Tomas Ramirez, principal at Bridgeport High School in Bridgeport, CT, will take over at Coile Middle School, replacing the retired Dwight Manzy.
One vacancy still remains, at Cleveland Road Elementary. Interviews are still going on for that position, district spokeswoman Anisa Sullivan Jimenez said.
The Clarke County School District has a two-tiered hiring process. Each school’s Local Governance Team—made up of teachers, staff, parents, community members and, at middle and high schools, a student—along with another school’s principal interviews candidates and recommend finalists to the superintendent and other top administrators. The school board then votes on the superintendent’s recommendation.
These hirings could be the last by interim Superintendent Jack Parish, who took over for Phil Lanoue in January. Newly hired Superintendent Demond Means will start work next month.
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