Two New Elementary Principals Selected
– Allison Goldsberry
School Superintendent Roy Belson announced the school district has selected two new elementary school principals to replace outgoing Columbus Elementary Principal Joan Yaeger and Brooks Elementary School Principal Michael Simon.
Kevin Andrews, currently the principal of the Horace Mann Laboratory School in Salem, will lead the Brooks next year while Kathleen Kay, currently the principal of the Brookside Elementary School in Milford, will take charge of the Columbus.
“I have met Ms. Kay several times and am quite impressed with her enthusiasm, experience, and professionalism. I look forward to working with her as closely as possible to help her transition to the “Best School In America!'” Said a letter from Principal Yaeger to the school community.
Prior to her current position in Milford, Kay (pictured at right) was a “sale representative for one of the leading pharmaceutical companies in the US, Janssen Pharmaceutica, selling medicines for the conditions of GERD, Alzheimer’s disease and schizophrenia,” according to her Linkedin.com profile.
Kay has eighteen years of experience in the classroom and taught grades two and four in Massapequa, New York before spending four years teaching second grade in Jakarta, Indonesia at the Jakarta International School.
According to a Salem News article, Andrews was a science teacher before becoming an elementary principal in Salem. He was also an assistant principal at the McCarthy School in Peabody and once worked as an educational specialist at the Harvard University Museum of Natural History. His current school, Horace Mann Laboratory School, has a close relationship with Salem State University, which sends education students into the school for training.
The principal search included an advisory committee of parents, teachers, and school administrators reviewing applications and conducting preliminary interviews before public interviews of several finalists took place before the School Committee last week.
Medford High School Headmaster Paul Krueger is also retiring this year after fourteen years leading the school. A similar process will follow to select the next Medford High principal.