NEWS RELEASE

Robin Kelly, formerly the principal at Edna L. Toliver Intermediate School, is now the Danville Independent School District’s director of data and administrative services. Former assistant principal Danny Goodwin will be stepping up as interim principal.

“We are extremely appreciative of the work Donda Kikendall did as data coordinator before she retired, and we are excited for Robin to step into this role,” said Interim Superintendent Elmer Thomas. “She’s been a great leader for a number of years and has worked as an administrator on both the elementary and middle school levels. She will be helping our administrators improve based on data.”

Kelly has been a principal for 20 years. Of those years, she was an assistant principal for six of them. She began as an assistant principal at Bardstown Elementary School, where she later became principal. Then, she became assistant principal at John W. Bate Middle School and also served as an interim principal there. She later became principal at Jennie Rogers Elementary School, then Toliver.

About her new role, she said she will miss the students, staff and families at Toliver, but she is excited to see new progress this upcoming school year “from a different seat.”

On the importance of data, she said, “We are constantly collecting data on our kids and their progress, sharing that with different groups of people and parents, and we want to make sure that we use the data to help drive our instruction to inform our teachers of what direction to go and how fast we’ll get there.”

One piece of her role will be serving as district assessment coordinator and, in that capacity, she is excited to be a resource to administrators and building assessment coordinators. A large focus will be on improving students’ performance in reading and state assessments. She will also be involved with records retention.

“I just want to do the best I can and be the best resource in a different capacity for the Danville Schools,” she said.

Another aspect of her new position will involve human relations, something she is excited about and has been trained on through Kentucky Women’s Educational Leadership and other organizations.

When the district recruits and hires new employees, it’s important for that to be a smooth process, she said.

“We want that to really be a smooth transition,” she said. “And some of that helps in the recruitment process and the longevity of their careers in Danville. So I’m definitely looking forward to helping in that manner as well.”