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[quote=Teacherof2025][quote=Anonymous]He comes from Alexandria City High School. ACPS people, what can you tell us? [/quote]

You all asked to hear from someone at ACHS / ACPS. Here you go.

Duncan has been steadily moving up the ranks from teacher to admin to top high school admin. He was a principal at Minnie Howard for two years (focusing on high school years) & executive principal over all four high schools for two years. Prior to being an administrator, he was a STEM English teacher for years.

You gotta take the good lumps with the bad. He’s passionate. He listens. He’s visible (or was before executive principal became his role). He’s fiery when he needs to be & has no tolerance for physical violence. He works closely with his APs & exudes a lot of self confidence. He made it a point not to have an office that he hid in, supposedly visiting the campuses (King Street, Minnie Howard, Chance for Change, & Satellite) on a regular basis. 
That said, the bad. He does have a buddy system of folks he prefers to work with. When one of them was caught in an illicit affair with a teacher (of which he was a direct supervisor!!!), Duncan was not dismayed from attempting to keep that admin in his role. When a position opened up that would have been a vertical move for that individual in their respective career ladder, someone notified the superintendent; only then was it stopped. (That relationship is still ongoing even though the admin in question is at a different school within the district). Duncan also does not discourage cliques. When he was a STEM teacher (in the STEM hallway), he spoke as if the students belonged to two different populations: STEM kids & the other Minnie kids. This also generally translates to staff, as well. Last year, he was part of the move to fire every single dean and assistant principal, regardless of years of service or levels of belovedness. All were forced to reapply for their jobs (that had been nationally advertised) with no internal process for those who had served the community for literal decades. Teachers who protested were put on leave. The administration shake up has contributed to the difficult year that we have just completed. 
Duncan had wonderful ideas of his own about how things could improve. In many ways, he was greatly limited by the bureaucracy that ACPS is notorious for. I had hoped the next year would be far more stable than this year was. Please also know that he did not tell ACHS / ACPS staff that he was leaving. The rumor mill was left to notify us, followed by an impromptu Zoom meeting with the remaining administration the next day. He allowed staff to leave for the summer thinking he would be there when we returned. I will miss him as a person, but not as an administrator. [/quote]

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