SPS announces staff changes

Published 10:42 pm Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Suffolk Public Schools has appointed four new assistant principals and shuffled several existing staff to different positions, administrators announced this week.

  • At John Yeates Middle School, new hire Marion Looney-Gill replaces one of three assistant principals who retired.
  • Lorri Banks, formerly assistant principal at Nansemond Parkway Elementary School, moves to Kilby Shores Elementary School, whose assistant principal moved to another school division. New hire Garrick Rhoads replaces Banks at Nansemond Parkway.
  • Danielle Belton becomes assistant principal at the new Pioneer Elementary School. She moves across from Northern Shores Elementary School, where new hire Darrell Medley becomes the assistant principal.
  • At Lakeland High School, Tina Paul changes roles from dean of students to assistant principal.
  • Switching places as assistant principals, Dana Bilby moves to Hillpoint Elementary School and Catherine Pichon moves to Mack Benn Jr. Elementary School.
  • LaToya Floyd becomes an assistant principal at King’s Fork High School, after one of three assistant principals relocated outside the area with their spouse.

District spokeswoman Bethanne Bradshaw announced the changes in a news release, also citing previous experience of the new hires.

Among the new assistant principal hires, Rhoads most recently taught at Mack Benn for six years. He holds earned his bachelor’s degree from Radford University and his master’s degree from Regent University.

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Medley comes to Suffolk from New Jersey, where he held the positions of school counselor, assistant principal and principal. He earned his bachelor’s and first master’s degrees from the University of Virginia and a second master’s from Caldwell College.

For 16 years, Looney-Gill has been a teacher and academic coach at King’s Fork Middle School and John F. Kennedy Middle School, and she taught outside Virginia for six years. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Western Kentucky University, her master’s degree from North Carolina State University and administrator certificate from George Washington University.

Paul was dean of students at Lakeland High School last year and taught at Nansemond River High School for 18 years. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Virginia State University and her master’s degree from Regent University.

Assistant principals are moved to different schools “every so often to strengthen an administrative team and provide the (assistant principal) with additional leadership opportunities,” Bradshaw stated.

The district also named Melody Mondell as the supervisor of math instruction, a position previously held by Ashley Heberling.