Denair High, Denair Middle and home-study charter will start year with new principals
New principals will welcome students back to Denair High School, Denair Middle School and Denair Charter Academy when classes resume in August.
Alecia Myers has moved into the high school principal’s office. Travis Manley will take the reins at Denair Middle. Dawn Allen, an elementary special education teacher with administrative experience, will run DCA, a home-study charter school for about 300 students, most in high school.
Previously announced principals re-shuffled after middle school Principal Aaron Delworth resigned to take a similar position in the Atwater school district, closer to his home in Merced, Denair Unified School District said in a statement.
Myers has worked at the Milpitas Unified School District in Santa Clara County, where she most recently was director of secondary education overseeing two high schools and two middle schools.
“Alecia comes to us with invaluable secondary teaching and administrative experience, and we are excited to make her a part of our Denair team,” Denair Superintendent Aaron Rosander said.
Manley graduated from Denair High in 2002. Since 2008, he’s been a sixth-grade teacher at Wakefield Elementary School in Turlock. He also has taught classes in early childhood education for the Offices of Education in Stanislaus and San Joaquin counties, and serves as summer school principal at Crowell Elementary in Turlock.
Allen joined the district in 2014 as a resource specialist and special ed teacher. She has more than two decades of experience as a teacher and administrator, including serving three years as principal at Adelante High School, a continuation campus in Riverbank, and working as a special education administrator in Turlock.
“I love the ability to individualize education,” Allen said. “At DCA, we can match plans to students.” Allen replaces Michelle Bush, who was promoted to senior director of curriculum and instruction, student support services and state preschool.
In other district news, trustees formally adopted an $11.9 million budget for 2015-16 that reflects continued financial improvement and a $1 million infusion of extra state money.
The district’s budget picture is brightened by growth on its elementary campuses. Projections show 481 youngsters in kindergarten through fifth grade at the new Denair Elementary Charter Academy and traditional Denair Elementary School. That’s an increase from 468 in 2014-15. Across the district, enrollment is projected to be 1,220, 35 fewer students than 2014-15.
Projections for the next three budget cycles anticipate a 4 percent annual enrollment decline across the six campuses, but Rosander said the district will work hard to retain students within its boundaries and attract others to its charter programs. The goal, he said, “is to grow enrollment (at the lower grades) and push it to the middle school and high school.”
This story was originally published July 20, 2015 at 10:28 PM with the headline "Denair High, Denair Middle and home-study charter will start year with new principals."