Forney ISD Announces Administrative Changes at Several Campuses Due to the Current and Projected Gro
The community of Forney and the Forney Independent School District continue to experience a great deal of growth in population and student enrollment. As announced earlier, Forney ISD is managing the growth by converting two elementary campuses into two intermediate schools which will open with the start of the 2019-20 school year. The two intermediate schools will house 5th and 6th grade students and the remaining seven elementary schools will house kindergarten through 4th grade students. All early elementary programs, (Pre-K, Headstart, PPCD), will be centralized at the Forney Academic Center beginning the 2018-19 school year.
In preparation for the future, the District is proactively implementing a number of administrative changes across the District. This will allow the new administrative teams to plan and prepare for the start of the 2018-19 and the 2019-20 school years.
Rhea Elementary School will be converted into one of the District’s new intermediate schools that will open at the start of the 2019-20 school year. Dr. Barbi Donehoo, currently the principal at Rhea Elementary School, has been named the principal for the future Rhea Intermediate School. Assistant principals Jessica Murphy and Matthew Bradley will join Dr. Donehoo on the administration team at Rhea Intermediate School.
Smith Elementary School will also be converted to an intermediate school at the start of the 2019-20 school year. Jeff Hutcheson, current principal at Smith Elementary School, has been named the principal for the future Smith Intermediate School. Hutcheson will be joined by assistant principals Courtney Rodriguez and Vashunda Warren. Warren is new to Forney ISD and comes to the District with experience in the Garland Independent School District and the Perot Museum of Nature and Science where she was a Campus Partner and Professional Development Manager. In addition, Deri Hooper will join the Smith Intermediate School administration team as the Dean of Instruction. Hooper has been working with Smith Elementary as a consultant for the past two years. She has extensive experience as an assistant principal and principal at several campuses in the Dallas Independent School District.
Much of the growth in Forney ISD has been on the north side of the District with North Forney High School experiencing a tremendous amount of student growth over the past two years. To help support this growth from the administrative level, North Forney High School Principal Courtney Peck named Sondra Floyd, principal at Warren Middle School to be the new Freshman Academy Administrator beginning with the 2018-19 school year. Joshua Garcia, currently the principal at the Forney Academic Center has been named the new principal at Warren Middle School beginning with the 2018-19 school year. Joining Garcia’s administrative team is Kristy Mach, currently an assistant principal at Warren and Raven Woods. Woods comes to Forney ISD with extensive experience in teaching and administration in both Wylie ISD and Garland ISD.
Current Forney High School Principal Stephen Whiffen will take on new leadership responsibilities as the principal at Forney Academic Center. Whiffen will vision and implement an expanded virtual learning program while building an administrative team to partner in the leadership of the new early learning center which will open at the Forney Academic Center with the start of the 2018-19 school year.
Current Forney High School Assistant Principal, Judith Willis has been named the Associate Principal at FHS. The district will post and begin interviewing for the principal position at FHS and plans to fill the position by the end of the current school year.
