Moore County Schools Superintendent Dr. Pat Russo said last week he will recommend Lea, who is the principal of Vass-Lakeview Elementary, to succeed Dr. George Griffin for the 2002-2003 school year. Griffin is retiring, again.
Griffin came out of retirement two years ago to serve as the interim principal at Union Pines, where he began his administrative career as a principal in the 1970s.
He was later promoted to assistant superintendent of the school system. He originally intended to work for one year while a permanent principal was sought.
Lea, a Moore County native, graduated from Union Pines. A few of her teachers are still there. Griffin was the principal when she was in high school.
Lea has been principal at Vass for two years. Before that, she was as an assistant principal at Pinecrest High School, and served an internship at West Pine Middle.
Besides finding a replacement for Lea at Vass- Lakeview, Bill Moore is retiring at the end of the school year as principal of Southern Middle School in Aberdeen. Russo is not expected to be ready to make recommendations to the Board of Education on filling those two positions until the March 28 meeting.
“We asked all of our sitting principals if any were interested in the openings coming up at either school to let us know,” Russo told The Pilot
Lea and one other person were interested in the Union Pines vacancy, but Russo said he didn’t submit the other principal’s name to the three interview committees, which include parents, teachers and students at Union Pines.
“If we feel we can support the person for that position, and feel it is a good match for the school, we would send them over there,” Russo said.
The school committees all unanimously recommended that Lea get the job, Russo said.
If the interview groups had expressed an interest in interviewing more prospective applicants in addition to Lea, Russo said he would have sent them additional applicants to consider.
“We could have, and would have opened it up for others if they (the interview committees) had wanted to do so,” Russo said.
Russo said no other principals in Moore County expressed an interest in applying for the Southern Middle position. The school system will advertise the position in Education Week, a national professional magazine.
The Vass-Lakeview vacancy will first be advertised in-house to see if any Moore County principals are interested in applying, Russo said. If not, that position will also be advertised in the national magazine.
“The objective is to get the best possible person,” Russo said. “We have an outstanding, strong cadre in the schools.”
Even though it is not official yet, Lea is already being announced as the possible new principal at school sporting events. She has already told her faculty at Vass-Lakeview that she expects to be leaving to take the Union Pines job.
The school board has final approval in hiring principals, but the board usually accepts the superintendent’s recommendation.
That should be the case with Lea since she has the strong support of the Union Pines High School community, and Russo considers her a good match for the school.
“I always treat parents the way I’d want someone to treat me. I don’t try to hold back,” Lea said.
She feels her “long background in this area” is the factor that helped win her the dream job of her career – principal at Union Pines.
“I’ve already started my transition,” Lea said. “I’m trying to spend at least half a day at Union Pines when I can, getting to know the students, teachers, and working with George (Griffin).
“I enjoy the energy of high schools and secondary education, and I enjoy high school students.”
Lea said that even though this is an administrative position, she wants to work directly with students as much as possible.
Lea wants to “build on the good things that are already happening at Union Pines.” She said it’s too early for her to anticipate making any changes at her new school.
She will face filling two teacher vacancies right away, including a new band director to replace longtime faculty member David Seiberling, who retires after this year.
Lea attended Peace College in Raleigh, earning her two-year associates degree in 1980. She came home to work at Southern Pines Elementary as an uncertified teacher assistant. Nathaniel Jackson, the principal of the school at the time, “told me to come back to school and become a teacher,” she said.
Lea earned a bachelor’s degree in K-9 education, specializing in Academically Gifted education. Her master’s degree is in reading and administration from Fayetteville State University. She also earned her six-year Education Specialist in Cultural Leadership degree in 1999 from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
She has spent her entire 19-year career in education in Moore Count. She taught academically gifted classes at Vass, Carthage and Robbins elementary and Elise Middle schools. She worked a year at West Pine Middle, serving as part-time assistant principal, two years as assistant principal at Pinecrest, and then filled the Vass-Lakeview vacancy two years ago.
Her family lives in the Vass area. She and her husband, Ricky, and their three children live in Eastwood. Josh is a ninth-grader at Union Pines; Caroline is a seventh-grader at West Pine Middle School; and Nolan is in the second grade at Vass-Lakeview. Ricky Lea is a Pinehurst firefighter and a farmer.
