The Atlanta Public School Board on June 2 announced the hiring of three new principals for Buckhead schools.
Effective July 1, Curtis Douglass will take the helm at North Atlanta High School, where he previously served as assistant principal; Woodbridge Greene Jr. will fill the top spot at Sutton Middle; and Kara Stimpson will take over at Brandon Elementary.
The hirings follow a period of uncertaintly when the three schools were all facing vacancies in the top spot.
On April 17 it became public that both North Atlanta High School Principal Dr. Howard “Gene” Taylor and Sutton Middle School Principal Audrey Sofianos had announced that they would not return next school year.
It was the second time since September that Taylor had quit, though he returned to his position just days after that announcement. Sofianos indicated in a letter to Sutton families she was leaving to focus on health and family, and could not continue in a full-time position.
Additonally, Morris Brandon Elementary Principal Karen Evans was one of seven APS principals reportedly told in March by the system that they would not be returning to their jobs next year.
Soon after the announcements on April 17, North Atlanta Parents for Public Schools (NAPPS) called on the Atlanta Board of Education “to act now.” NAPPS is a nonprofit parent group that works to provide an informational forum, and to help support student and school needs in Buckhead.
Saying that the school system has 19 principal vacancies district-wide, NAPPS wrote to the school board, “This shows there is a bigger theme than just our cluster. We need our district to alter their model and we need the new BOE to act now.”
The APS school board named 10 new principals districtwide at the June 2 meeting, following nine appointments in May, in total filling the 19 vacancies.