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Whitehaven High principal not leaving school improvement program he helped start after all

Almost a month after a shocking announcement ousting the leader from a fledgling school improvement program, the longtime principal isn’t going anywhere.

Shante Avant, the school board chairwoman whose district includes the Whitehaven schools in the Empowerment Zone, said Monday that Vincent Hunter will continue to both lead Whitehaven High School and coach principals in the program’s nine schools.

The robocall last month to parents and staff of the Empowerment Zone announcing his departure from leading the program was a surprise to members of the leadership council that regularly meets with district officials on the program’s progress.

That robocall is also how Hunter found out about the news.

“I was in the car with my wife and she put it on speaker phone and let me hear it,” Hunter said.

Vincent Hunter at a block party at Havenview Middle School in July 2018. (Photo: Laura Fa

At the center of the misfire were negotiations to transfer some administrative responsibilities of leading the zone from Hunter to the district’s central office because the program is set to double in size this fall.

“It was too soon to send anything out while we were working out the details,” Avant said. “It should never have been sent out.”

Superintendent Dorsey Hopson tapped Hunter to lead the Empowerment Zone in 2016 as a neighborhood-centric approach to improving schools. The effort was meant to build off the successes of the district’s Innovation Zone, which has sustained student academic gains for some of the lowest performing schools in the state. It was also meant to shield a group of low-performing schools in Whitehaven from state takeover.

Eddie Jones, the president of the leadership council and a county commissioner, said adding six schools to the zone at once was not in the original plan. The leadership council’s bylaws, he said, phased schools in at a slower pace.

“We weren’t against it, but a lot of things had to change after that,” Jones said.

It is unclear who authorized the district’s robocall to thousands of parents and staff announcing Hunter had “decided to no longer lead” the program and would instead “focus his talents on solely leading Whitehaven High School.” According to Jones, Superintendent Dorsey Hopson was on vacation when it happened.

“Once it went out, the superintendent took prompt action and told everyone to stand down,” so he could assess the situation, Jones said. Hopson did not respond to a request to comment Monday.

Avant said now that some administrative duties are off his plate, Hunter can “focus on what he does well, which is coaching” other principals.

“We had to figure out the best way for him to do the things he loves to do,” she said.

Whitehaven Empowerment Zone schools by year

  • 2016-17: Whitehaven High, Havenview Middle
  • 2017-18: Holmes Road Elementary, A. Maceo Walker Middle
  • 2018-19: Geeter K-8 (formerly Geeter Middle and Manor Lake Elementary), Whitehaven Elementary, Oakshire Elementary, Robert R. Church Elementary, and John P. Freeman Elementary

The post Whitehaven High principal not leaving school improvement program he helped start after all appeared first on Chalkbeat.

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