New Murch Principal

[Anonymous]

Has anyone heard if they hired a new principal at Murch . I thought today was the deadline for principals to be in place.

[Anonymous]

Dear Murch Community,

We are extremely pleased to share the news that DC Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee on Thursday evening offered the Murch principal position to Dawn Ellis. Ms. Ellis was the top pick among the five candidates interviewed by the Murch staff/parent principal selection panel on July 8. An official announcement from DCPS will be arriving in the mail soon. Ms. Ellis is expected to start at Murch today (July 20), which will give her six weeks to prepare for the new school year.

Dawn Ellis is an experienced principal and educator. She led nearby schools for 17 years, serving long terms as principal of Burtonsville Elementary School, in Burtonsville, MD (1987-1996), and of Neelsville Middle School in Germanton, MD (1996-2004). From 2004 to 2007, she coached principals for Montgomery County Public Schools. During the past two years, she's served as chief academic officer in the DC Preparatory Charter Management Organization and as director of school achievement with New Leaders for New Schools. Before becoming a principal, Ms. Ellis spent more than 10 years as a classroom teacher in elementary and middle schools and as an assistant principal. She has a B.A. degree from the College of William and Mary and an M.Ed from the University of Virginia.

Dawn Ellis's professional credentials are impressive and important, but the Murch community should also know that members of the principal selection panel found her to be a warm, confident, upbeat, humorous, and articulate person during the hour they spent with her on July 8. Having served as a principal in the DC metro area, Ms. Ellis will come to Murch with some familiarity with a school community like ours and with knowledge of local institutions and resources that she'll be able to draw upon to enrich classroom and extracurricular programming at Murch.

We believe Dawn Ellis will be an effective and steady leader and a delightful presence in our school (and we bet the kids will think she's terrific!). We look forward to working with her, and we're very excited about the upcoming school year.

With best wishes for the remainder of the summer,

Members of the Murch Local School Restructuring Team (LSRT)