Danville High School council planning to select new principal

Published 5:47 pm Monday, May 20, 2019

The Danville High School council will hold a special called meeting to discuss the process, procedures and timeline for principal selection tomorrow at 5:30 p.m.

“It’s a procedural thing we do every time we get ready to select a principal,” said David Davis, the district’s coordinator for site-based decision-making councils.

Superintendent Tammy McDonald declined to comment on the called meeting.

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The meeting indicates current Principal Haley Ralston will not be returning in her current position next school year.

Ralston did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The special council meeting will be held in the Danville High School library at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 21.

Parents and community members began stating publicly in early May that the decision had been made that Ralston would not be returning as principal. McDonald refused to confirm or deny the rumors at the time, saying on the record only, “I am not going to talk about a personnel issue. I cannot talk about a personnel issue.”

Ralston declined to comment when the rumors first surfaced.

Davis noted Monday that schools in the district have already successfully completed the principal selection process twice this school year — once in October, when the Bate Middle School council chose Chris Murray to replace Sheri Satterly, who was hired as the district’s assistant superintendent; and once this month, when Hogsett Primary School Assistant Principal Suzanne Farmer was chosen to succeed retiring Principal Leo Labrillazo.

Ralston, a Danville native, has been principal at DHS since November 2016. She took over the job when it was announced unexpectedly that then-Principal Catherine Slack would be given other job duties in the district.

Slack held the principal job for less than six months — she had been hired over the summer of 2016. Before Slack, veteran educator Win Smith served as principal on a interim basis for the 2015-16 school year, after the departure of Aaron Etherington, who left in the summer of 2015 to take a principal job at East Jessamine High School.

If a new principal is at the helm for the 2019-20 school year, it will be Danville High School’s fifth principal in six years.