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Francis, Nakonachy, Priemer, Wingler, Primus and Cook were in the first class to complete CMSD’s Aspiring Principals Academy, founded last year to help groom new leaders for the District. Candidates spend five weeks in a summer “boot camp” that simulates situations in a school and then work for a year alongside a mentor principal in a school.
14 CMSD schools get new principals
CMSD NEWS BUREAU
6/3/2015
CMSD has appointed new principals at 14 schools, including six who recently completed a yearlong training program for “aspiring principals.” The principals include:
- Wendy Rose Geiling, Newton D. Baker School of the Arts. Geiling has worked for the District 14 years, serving as an intervention specialist and curriculum and instructional specialist, a job that requires a principal’s license.
- Katie Francis, Orchard STEM School. She has been with the District since 2009 and has served as an intervention specialist and curriculum and instruction specialist. She was named an assistant principal at Orchard during the 2014-15 school year.
- Marisol Burgos, Thomas Jefferson International Newcomers Academy, a K-12 school for students arriving from other countries, many of them refugees, and Puerto Rico. She has worked for CMSD as a teacher, bilingual assessment specialist, curriculum and instruction specialist and assistant principal.
- Melanie Nakonachy, Mary M. Bethune School. She has worked 14 years in the District as a teacher and media specialist.
- Dawn Hayden, Willson School. She has worked 20 years with CMSD, serving as an interpreter, “flexible content expert” and assistant principal.
- Brandee Lee Carson-Jones, Case School. She has been with the District for eight years and has worked as a curriculum and instruction specialist.
- Sherrie Turner, Franklin D. Roosevelt School. She formerly was an assistant principal at the Cleveland School of the Arts and was a principal with the Saginaw, Mich., schools.
- Amy Mobley, William Cullen Bryant School. She had been assistant principal at William Cullen Bryant and previously was principal at a charter school for eight years.
- Anne Priemer, Oliver H. Perry School. She previously was a teacher in New York and director of curriculum and instruction at a Cleveland-area charter school.
- Bill Wingler, Louis Agassiz School. He has worked as a special-education teacher in Bay Village and Medina and as a registered nurse.
- The principals of the new small schools at the John Marshall Campus, formerly John Marshall High School, will be Timothy Primus, John Marshall School of Engineering; Sara Kidner, John Marshall School of Civic and Business Leadership; and Chelsey Cook, John Marshall School of Information Technology. Primus formerly was an assistant principal in Durham, N.C., Kidner was principal at CMSD’s SuccessTech Academy, and Cook was a science teacher in San Antonio.
- John Lepelley, Cleveland School of the Arts. Lepelley had been principal at William Cullen Bryant.
Francis, Nakonachy, Priemer, Wingler, Primus and Cook were in the first class to complete CMSD’s Aspiring Principals Academy, founded last year to help groom new leaders for the District. Candidates spend five weeks in a summer “boot camp” that simulates situations in a school and then work for a year alongside a mentor principal in a school.