At Year's Outset, A Power Shuffle
Special-Ed Position Filled; 20 Principals To Begin New Jobs

By Theola Labbé
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, August 24, 2006

The academic year begins next week with 20 new or reassigned principals in the D.C. public schools and one new face in a long-vacant top administration position.

Marla C. Oakes, a 30-year education veteran, will take over as executive director of special education, filling a post that has been vacant for nearly a year. Oakes has served as an assistant superintendent in the St. Louis public schools, where roughly 6,000 students have disabilities. There she worked with agencies, nonprofit groups and specialized schools to coordinate special education services.

Oakes comes to the District at a critical time for special education. According to a recent Washington Post analysis, the school system spent $118 million last year on tuition for special education students attending private schools, an expense that was 65 percent higher than in 2000. Records show that officials have covered the rising costs by transferring tens of millions of dollars a year from public school programs.

About one in five special education students in the District attend private schools, compared with one in 11 in Prince George's County and one in 27 in Montgomery County.

Oakes started working in education in New Orleans as a reading therapist and later was a speech pathologist. She previously worked in Fairfax County and Prince George's County public schools, and she has been an adjunct instructor with the special education department at Howard University.

New Principals

· Dana Leigh Nerenberg is the new principal at Hyde Elementary School. Nerenberg previously was a principal in training at Amidon Elementary School, and she has taught at Gage-Eckington Elementary School and Friendship Public Charter School.

· LaShada Ham, a D.C. public school graduate, will be at Raymond Elementary School, moving up from the assistant-principal ranks last year at McGogney Elementary.

· Ximena Hartsock, formerly of Tubman Elementary, will become principal of Ross Elementary.

· Linda Williams, new principal at Young Elementary, participated in the New Leaders for New Schools program and was previously an assistant principal at Winston Educational Center.

· Kimberly Ridley Davis, the former interim principal at Houston Elementary School, is the new principal at Gibbs Elementary School.

· Brearn Wright Jr. will take the reins at Clark Elementary School. He was an assistant principal at Ferebee-Hope Community School Complex last year.

· LaVonne Taliaferro-Bunch will serve at Miner Elementary, where she was acting principal last year.

· Melissa Martin will take over at Montgomery Elementary School, where she was interim principal last year.

· Gwendolyn Payton, who most recently served as the assistant principal at John Burroughs Elementary, is Beers Elementary School's new principal.

· Willie Jackson will be leading Hine Junior High School, where he served as interim principal last school year.

· Tammy Thomas, Garfield Elementary School's new principal, most recently served as the assistant principal of E.L. Haynes Public Charter School.

· David Mason will be at the Moten Center, where he served as interim principal last school year.

· Sheena Tuckson, will assume leadership duties at Kelly Miller Middle School after serving as principal of Stoddert Elementary School last year.

· Darrin Slade, former principal of Fletcher-Johnson Education Center, will be the principal of Ron Brown Middle School.

· Eugene Pair, former principal of Shadd Elementary, will serve as the principal of Merritt Education Center.

· Tanya Deskins, former principal of M.C. Terrell Elementary School, will serve as principal of the consolidated M.C. Terrell/McGogney Elementary School campus.

· Janette Johns-Gibson, former principal of Walker Jones, will lead the consolidated Walker Jones/R.H.Terrell Elementary School.

· Jocelyn Drakeford will take over at Eaton Elementary, coming from James McHenry Elementary School in Prince George's County, where she was a vice principal.

· Natasha Warsaw, who worked last year as an assistant principal at Garnett Patterson middle school, will be the principal of Whittier Elementary.

· Andriana Kalapathakos is the new Stoddert Elementary School principal. She worked last year as an assistant principal at Takoma Educational Center.

Staff writer V. Dion Haynes contributed to this report.