Rosetta Le will move one office over at Suncrest Elementary for the start of the new year.
Le had been serving in the top leadership role there on an interim basis since April.
That’s when Suncrest Elementary’s then-principal Doug Gaither took a job out of state and Le, then an assistant principal there, was asked by the district to step in.
“Rosetta stepped right in and did a good job,” Deputy Schools Superintendent Donna Talerico said.
The school’s newest principal is a North Carolina native who has been in education for 16 years, the deputy superintendent said.
She joined Monongalia County Schools in 2017 as an academic coach, Talerico said.
Le’s school is going into the new academic year with some accolades from the state, courtesy of the West Virginia Behavior/Mental Health Technical Assistance Center.
The center, which is housed at Marshall University in Huntington, gave the school Tier 1 status through its Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports initiative (PBIS).
PBIS schools do the entertaining, motivating things such as the above, while more importantly mixing in serious measures to quell bullying, arguing and other forms of harassment — from classrooms to the teacher’s lounge.
The program’s coordinator Alicia Ziman said maintaining emotional health is more critical than ever.
Especially, she said, in America’s schools, where students and staffers alike regularly bring the stress from home to the main hallway and the threat of gun violence is casting shadows that couldn’t be more pronounced.
Schools named as models in the center’s conflict resolution program aren’t shy about sharing what works, Ziman said.
The center, she said, has a long reach across the Mountain State.
“Identifying model schools gives us the opportunity to showcase the work,” the program coordinator said.
“We also have the ability to share their experiences with schools across the state and with outside stakeholders,” she continued.
“Model schools can instill an excitement in others that is hard to capture in any training alone.”
In recent years, Suncrest Elementary was named among the top-three achieving elementary schools in West Virginia, according to data from Niche, a marketing research firm in Pittsburgh.
Talerico said Monday every Mon school is now getting ready for the first day of school, which is Aug. 22.
Teachers report the week before that, she added, to get their classrooms ready for the coming year.
“We’ll have some training sessions and other workshops, too,” she said. “I think everyone will be glad to get back.”
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