ROGERS -- Rogers High School Principal Charles Lee will join the district's leadership team as an assistant superintendent.
The School Board met Wednesday to approve the district administration's recommendations for new hires, resignations and other personnel changes. The School Board also voted on filling a new position of director of the Rogers Honors Academy.
Rogers names new administrators
*Charles Lee, assistant superintendent of secondary curriculum and instruction for the district
*Carla Fontaine, director of new Rogers Honors Academy
*Rob Lindley, assistant principal at Rogers High School
*Leah Padilla, assistant principal at Janie Darr Elementary School
Lee will succeed Robert Moore, who resigned as assistant superintendent for secondary curriculum and instruction to take a new job as assistant superintendent in a Nebraska school district.
Lee is finishing his 27th year in education, including 15 as a high school administrator. He spent the majority of his career in four school districts in northeast Arkansas before joining the Rogers High School staff as assistant principal in 2013. He was named principal in 2013. As assistant superintendent, Lee will earn an annual salary of $110,106. Moore earned a annual salary of $116,293.
"It's an exciting time for me," Lee said Wednesday. "Somebody has a lot of faith in what I do. We've got some good things going."
Rogers is experiencing a change in leadership with superintendent Janie Darr retiring and Marlin Berry, superintendent of the Olathe, Kan., School District, taking her place starting July 1. Mark Sparks, the district's deputy superintendent, also is retiring after nearly 30 years in education. Darr has said she will leave hiring a deputy superintendent to the incoming superintendent.
Lee knows the school district and understands the initiatives the district will implement in the 2016-17 school year, Darr said. Those projects include the start of the Rogers Honors Academy and incorporating athletics into the middle school day.
School Board President Kristen Cobbs said Sparks has been a proponent of grooming leaders within the district's curriculum specialists, assistant principals and principals.
"I have the utmost faith in our administration that they're going to look for the right people and choose wisely," she said.
The School Board also approved Carla Fontaine as director of the new Rogers Honors Academy. The academy is designed to help selected students be accepted to nationally ranked colleges or universities.
Fontaine, who will earn a salary of $75,373, started her education career at Southwest Junior High School in Springdale and spent 20 years working for Harvard University, said Roger Hill, Rogers assistant superintendent for human resources.
The School Board agreed with the administration's recommendations for assistant principals. Rob Lindley, an assistant principal at Har-Ber High School, will replace Ron Highfill as an assistant principal at Rogers High School. Leah Padilla, a literacy facilitator at Janie Darr Elementary School, will begin a new role as assistant principal there.
NW News on 06/09/2016