News

Kelly Schofield, who put Dana on the map, moves to Iowa

Kelly Schofield, Dana principal from 2007 to 2015, accepted a job as an elementary school principal in Des Moines, Iowa.

By Lightning Reports, Published: July 30, 2015

Atkinson and Dana elementary schools welcomed new principals this summer while an innovative leader who brought national recognition to Dana moved on to a new principalship in Iowa.

Kim Morgan started her principalship at Dana effective July 27 and Mark Page began serving as Atkinson's principal effective July 1.

Morgan has spent the past two years as assistant principal at Flat Rock Middle School. Prior to that, she served as an instructional coach for three years after working as a classroom teacher at Mills River Elementary, Flat Rock Middle and East Henderson High for 13 years.

Morgan moves to the Dana job after the departure of Kelly Schofield, who brought state and national recognition to the apple country school with her installation of innovative programs and achieving higher test scores.

In her last year in the Henderson County schools, Dana hosted more than 500 visiting school administrators and teachers from the South to learn about a student leadership program called "The Leader in Me" that Schofield initiated.

In 2013 she was one of 20 elementary and middle school principals from across the nation selected by Crayola and the National Association of Elementary School Principals to receive a "Champion Creatively Alive Children" school grant. Dana was one of six schools to represent North Carolina as a National Title I Distinguished School for Sustained Student Achievement and was one of six schools across the country to win a National School Change Award.

"She has created a school culture in which staff members are expected and encouraged to be state and national professional leaders," a coworker said in a letter nominating her for an Athena Award last spring. "Her teachers have presented at national and state programs and Kelly has given presentations to the North Carolina/South Carolina Chamber of Commerce convention. She delivered the keynote address with Sean Covey of the Franklin Institute at the last NC Administrators Conference. Her teachers consider Kelly a “change agent” who inspires them all to reach higher."

The 2012-13 Henderson County principal of the year, Schofield, a native of Indiana, has accepcted a job as principal of Hanawalt Elementary School in Des Moines.

"She went there partly for family reasons but she will make twice what she made in Henderson County as a principal in Iowa," said Paul Knott, the executive director of the Henderson County Education Foundation, who praised Dana's nationally renowned education innovation during a presentation at the Hendersonville Kiwanis Club on Thursday.

Prior to this year, Page spent eight years as assistant principal/athlic director at Rugby Middle. Before joining HCPS, Page, the son of former Henderson County schools Superintendent Stephen Page, served as an elementary teacher at Meadowbrook Elementary in Haywood County for a year before moving to Charleston, S.C. and teaching science for four years at Fort Johnson Middle in the Charleston County School District.

Taking Page’s place as assistant principal/athletic director at Rugby Middle is Michael Gates, formerly an assistant principal at Apple Valley Middle, and Justin McKenzie will be joining Apple Valley Middle as its new assistant principal/athletic director. McKenzie has been serving in a dual role at Henderson County Early College as a classroom teacher and school administrator.

New to the HCPS system is Matthew Haney, who joined the administrative team at Flat Rock Middle as assistant principal/athletic director earlier in July. Haney formerly served as assistant principal at Canton Middle and Pisgah High in Haywood County. Benita Rudi, formerly of Polk County Public Schools, will be lead teacher at Edneyville Elementary.

The assistant principal vacancy at Flat Rock Middle created by Morgan’s move to Dana and the teacher/administration vacancy at Early College created by McKenzie’s move to Apple Valley Middle have yet to be filled.
Both positions will be filled and approved by the Henderson County Board of Public Education before school starts Aug. 24.