New, vibrant leaders at CMSD elementary schools in Collinwood area

CMSD NEWS BUREAU

There’s an exciting new wave of CMSD leadership in the Collinwood area schools. 

Four of the five CMSD schools in the K-8 buildings in the neighborhood have new principals at the helm and the remaining school has a second-year leader.

The new principals are Jennifer Woody at Euclid Park, Katherine Coverdale at Hannah Gibbons, Michelle Person at Memorial and Anne Priemer at O.H. Perry.  At Iowa-Maple School, Natalie Benson is in her second year heading the school. 

Brianna Savoca Koehler, director of Talent Acquisition for the District, said “recruiting great talent to lead schools” has been an important piece of “identifying the best fit for our scholars and the community.”

“In Collinwood, we've hired five rock star principals who outshined other applicants, and each solo principal was the best match to lead each respective building,” she said. “Through professional development opportunities and continued recruitment of strong teachers, we will give these new principals the tools and talent needed to lead high performing schools."

Here’s a glimpse at the new leaders:

Jennifer Woody, Euclid Park PreK-8 School

Jennifer Woody comes to CMSD with a diverse background in finance and non-profit grant writing. She cited the existing “outstanding instructional staff” at Euclid Park and said the school is continually developing a “focus that includes engaging every scholar every day via an inquiry base curriculum.”

“All scholars that attend Euclid Park will depart with 21st century skills in technology, public speaking and college readiness,” she said.

The school also has incorporated extracurricular activities such as Lady Bound, boys and girl’s basketball, chess, Boy Scouts, and the N.OW Bullying Program to develop character and sportsmanship, she said.

Woody graduated from Ohio University with an education degree, but only after first switching from an international finance major, and later received her Master’s Degree from Cleveland State University and has taught students across the PreK-12 spectrum.

She also served as academic coordinator for the Upward Bound Program at Case Western Reserve University, which she said “reinforced my grant writing skills and fueled my energy to increase the number of low-income first generation college students matriculating to college. “ 

Katherine Coverdale, Hannah Gibbons PreK-8 STEM  School

At Hannah Gibbons, new Principal Katherine E. Coverdale is a lifelong educator who grew up in the Cleveland area and received her principal’s license from Cleveland State University.

Coverdale said she comes back to Cleveland “after exploring the mountains for 10 years and has returned home with the specific goal of leading a CMSD school to academic success.”

She is a graduate of Colorado College with a degree in sociology and a Master’s Degree in teaching. She had previously taught in grades 4-6 and worked in support positions in all PreK-8 grades.

“Hannah Gibbons-STEM School is an exciting school where science, technology, engineering and math come alive in the form of Capstone projects,” she said. “I am excited to lead the scholars of Hannah Gibbons towards successful STEM careers!

Michelle Person, Memorial PreK-8 School 

At Memorial PreK-8 School, things were busy on Friday, Aug. 15: Teachers were setting up classrooms, parents were stopping buy to iron out last minute registration details, and everyone was excited to do a little line dancing, enjoy an ice cream sundae, and meet the school’s new principal, Michelle Person.

Person, a former CMSD teacher with over a decade of classroom experience, said the reception was fantastic.

“The community support has been amazing,” she said. “Everyone has been extremely welcoming, from the parents, to the staff. It’s going to be a great year. “

Her career began in 2000 as a Teach For America corps member originally assigned to Newark, NJ.  A native of Cleveland, Person taught for four years in New Jersey before returning home.

Upon her return to Cleveland, Michelle worked at Citizens’ Academy and Warner Girls Leadership Academy before moving into the role of principal at a West Side charter school, where she helped lead the school to a 20-point Performance Index increase.

Now, as a “true believer in the ability of education to transform lives,” Person said she is eager and excited about leading the way at Memorial.

“There is work to be done and my staff and I are prepared to do what it takes to get it done”, Person said.

The school’s preschool program recently received five stars, the highest designation available, from the state of Ohio’s Step Up to Quality program, Person said.

Memorial also has a state-of-the-art computer lab, media center, and SMART Boards in every classroom, she said.

The school is also planning to dedicate a new Little Free that will pay tribute to the victims of the Collinwood school fire of 1908. The school was named Memorial as a remembrance.

Anne Priemer, Oliver H. Perry PreK-8 School

Anne Priemer, the new principal at Oliver H. Perry, began her career in education as a special education teacher in Harlem, New York. Three years ago she moved back to her hometown of Cleveland and spent several years at Citizens Leadership Academy, a Breakthrough Charter School in the Hough neighborhood of Cleveland.

Then, in the 2014-15 school year, she was part of CMSD’s Aspiring Principals Program, a joint initiative of the CMSD and the New York City Leadership Academy.

Citing the Cleveland Plan for Transforming Schools, which states that “our schools must run […] beyond printed textbooks and beyond the physical walls of today’s classrooms,”  Ann Priemer said her “overarching goal is to provide O.H. Perry scholars not with an education of worksheets, textbooks and lectures, but with experiences that develop their whole person.”

She said she wants the O.H. Perry students to “have experiences that will develop their intellect: their ability to see multiple solutions to a problem, and their ability to use evidence to support their own conclusions.”

“I want all of our scholars to graduate knowing the value of other perspectives and possessing a strong sense of empathy, compassion and integrity,”  she said.

Priemer said she welcomes community volunteers at the school who would “like to play with our scholars at recess, read a book to our PreK-3 grade scholars, or bring an after-school program to our school.”

Natalie Smith-Benson, Iowa-Maple PreK-8 School

Smith-Benson is the Collinwood area veteran in more ways than one: Not only is she in her second year at the school, but she’s lived in the area for the last 16 years.

And she’s a CMSD veteran: “I’ve been a substitute teacher, kindergarten teacher, assistant principal, curriculum instructional specialist and now a principal,” she said.

Smith-Benson received her education degree from Central State University and has two Masters Degrees from Cleveland State University, one in speech communications and the other in curriculum and instruction for early childhood, with an Education Specialist Degree in Administration.

“We have a lot of great things going on at Iowa Maple,” she said. “For example our middle school scholars are learning about the scientific method and are actively engaged conducting science experiments on a daily basis.”

She said teachers in grades 6-8 are also being trained for “Fuel Education Blended Learning,”  a program already being used in CMSD high schools for credit recovery. She said Iowa-Maple is a pilot school to see how the program works in elementary schools.

Smith-Benson cited a successful early September school rally in which students performed raps, poems and chants about the importance of school attendance (“Get to School. You Can Make It!), anti-bullying and others, including rhymes about college mascots to get the students thinking about post-secondary education as early as possible.