Personnel Appointments

TO:   Chairperson and Members, Boston School Committee

FROM:   Thomas W. Payzant, Superintendent

On May 9, 2003, I announced the appointment of nine elementary principals to positions that were posted and screened during March and April. The May 9th memo is attached for your reference.

I am announcing tonight additional appointments of principals and several appointments to central office positions.

1. ELEMENTARY PRINCIPALS
   
   1. Samuel Adams Elementary School
         Grace Madsen, Principal
      Grace Madsen has been principal of the Harriet A. Baldwin Elementary School since 2000. She has been a teacher in Wellesley and Brookline. In Boston, she also has served as a teacher, assistant principal and math specialist.

   
   
   

   2. Dante Alighieri Elementary School
         Sunny Bianca Astorga, Principal
      Ms. Astorga graduated from the University of Houston and taught fourth grade at the Cornelius Science Academy in Houston from 1999-2002. She has spent the past year completing her master's degree and principal certification at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Her principal internship has been at the John Marshall Elementary School in Boston.

   
   
   

   3. George H. Conley Elementary School
         Kathleen Armstrong, Principal
      Kathleen Armstrong has been instructional leader in Triad A for the past two years. She served as principal of the James M. Curley Elementary School from 1993 to 2001. She also has been a mathematics teacher and mathematics specialist in the Boston Public Schools.

   
   
   

   4. Harvard/Kent Elementary School
         Richard Martin, Principal
      Richard Martin is the Director of Coaching for Staff Development at the Boston Plan for Excellence (BPE). Since 1997, he has worked as both a literacy coach and change coach in the Boston Public Schools (BPS) and has remained the change coach at the Everett School during his tenure as director of coaching.

      Before coming to Boston, Mr. Martin worked as a language arts consultant for the New York State Department of Education (DOE). Prior to his work with the DOE, he coordinated a Poet-in-the-Schools program in upstate New York and worked as an elementary school teacher.

      Mr. Martin received his M.Ed. in Educational Administration from Lesley College in 1997. He is the author of four volumes of poetry. Awards for his poetry include a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship.

   
   
   

   5. Ellis Mendell Elementary School
         Vera Johnson, Principal
      Vera Johnson was appointed principal of the Endicott Elementary School last summer. She started with the BPS in 1991 and has taught various grades at the John Marshall and Joyce Kilmer schools. She has been an assistant principal at the William Ohrenberger School. Ms. Johnson has a M.Ed. from Boston College as well as a master's in Hispanic Culture and Civilization from New York University. Ms. Johnson was instrumental in bringing in grants, such as Impact II and the Department of Education Lighthouse Adoption, while serving at the Joyce Kilmer.

   
   
   

   6. Thomas J. Kenny Elementary School
         Suzanne Federspiel, Principal
      Suzanne Federspiel has been principal at the Margaret Fuller Elementary School since January 2000. She completed the BPS Aspiring Principals Program in 1999 while she was a literacy coach for the Boston Public Schools.





2. K-8 PRINCIPALS
   
   1. Maurice J. Tobin K-8 School
         Cheryl Watson-Harris,Principal
      Cheryl Watson-Harris has been principal of the Thomas Kenny Elementary School since 1999. She also served for one year as an assistant principal at the Taylor Elementary School. She taught kindergarten, second, sixth, seventh and eighth grades in Brooklyn, New York before moving to Boston to earn a master's degree and principal certification at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

   
   
   

   2. Orchard Gardens K-8 Pilot School
         Nanzetta Merriman, Principal
      Nanzetta Merriman has served as an elementary school principal in Newton and Framingham. He was a central office administrator in Framingham when he was selected as principal in the Orchard Gardens K-8 Pilot School earlier this spring.





3. MIDDLE SCHOOL PRINCIPALS
   
   1. Patrick F. Gavin Middle School:
         Dale Libkin, Principal
      Dale Libkin has been the principal of the North Middle School in Everett, Washington since 2000. She has been an assistant principal at the high school level and has taught at the middle school level.

   
   
   

   2. Washington Irving Middle School:
         James Watson, Principal
      In 2000, James Watson returned to Boston Public Schools to be principal of the Wheatley Middle School after serving in the Randolph Public Schools as principal at the junior/ senior high school and assistant to the superintendent. He began his career in Boston in 1978, and subsequently, served as a middle school principal and headmaster here.

   
   
   

   3. Mildred Avenue Middle School:
         Shirley Allen, Principal
      Shirley Allen has been the principal of the R. G. Shaw Middle School for four years. She served as acting principal of the Timilty Middle School for one year prior to her current assignment.

   
   
   

   4. New Boston Pilot Middle School:
         Debra Socia, Principal
      Ms. Socia has taught elementary and secondary school mathematics, served as a program director at the Center for Collaborative Education and was a curriculum coordinator for a regional school district. Since 2000, she has been part of the administrative leadership team at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School.

   
   
   

   5. William Howard Taft Middle School:
         Ronald Spratling, Principal
      Ron Spratling has been principal of the Thompson Middle School since 1984. He served as cluster leader for Cluster 9 from 1996 to 2001.





4. HIGH SCHOOL HEADMASTERS
   
   1. Community Academy:
         Victor Diaz, Principal
      Victor Diaz graduated from UCLA with a BA in Chicano studies in 1994. He earned a Jurist Doctorate from the New College School of Law in San Francisco in 1997 and a Masters in Educational Technology from the University of San Francisco in 2002. He has taught in Oakland and San Francisco working with students at risk. He is completing his principal certification at the California State University-Sacramento.

   
   
   

   2. Fenway High School:
         Peggy Kemp, Headmaster
      Peggy Kemp served as acting headmaster of the O'Bryant School of Mathematics and Science for the 2001-2002 school year while on leave from a position at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Prior to accepting her position at Harvard, she had a long career as a teacher and program director in BPS. After returning to Harvard for this academic year, she was selected as headmaster of the Fenway, effective July 1, 2003.





5. CENTRAL OFFICE APPOINTMENTS
   
   1. Deputy Superintendent for Teaching and Learning:
         Chris Coxon
      Chris Coxon has been with the BPS since January 2002 when he became the superintendent's intern from the Urban Superintendents Doctoral Program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This school year, he has served as the instructional leader for Triad A. Before coming to Boston, Mr. Coxon served in Puerto Rico as an elementary school principal at the Antilles Consolidated School System (ACSS), a Department of Defense Education Activity school system. He has also served as the director for school improvement where he planned and supervised district and school specific instructional strategic planning. Mr. Coxon has served in a variety of elementary teaching positions within ACSS and the Dallas ISD, where he started his teaching career. He has a M.A. from the University of Phoenix and a M.Ed. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education where he is completing his doctoral program.

   
   
   

   2. Chief of Staff:
         Chris Horan
      Christopher M. Horan has served as executive secretary of the Boston School Committee since 1998. He previously worked as director of speechwriting for Mayor Thomas M. Menino. Mr. Horan earned an undergraduate degree in English from Princeton University and a master's degree in Creative Writing from Emerson College.

   
   
   

   3. Director, School Leadership Institute:
         Rachel Curtis
      Rachel Curtis has fifteen years experience in education, having worked and taught from pre-K to the graduate level. In her seven years in the Boston Public Schools, she has served as assistant director and director of the Center for Leadership Development, and most recently, as director of School Development. In these roles, she designed and implemented the Preparation for the Principalship Program, the New Teacher Support system, the Whole School Improvement planning process, and the Instructional Coaching strategy. Ms. Curtis also serves as adjunct faculty in Wheelock's Educational Leadership Program. Prior to joining the BPS, she worked for the Annenberg Institute for School Reform researching effective school leaders, and for the Center for Collaborative Education, designing and raising funds for the first whole school reform grants given to Boston high schools. Ms. Curtis holds a M.Ed. in Leadership and Organization Development in the Context of School Reform from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a B.A. from Wesleyan University.