Gentilly Terrace Elementary School Principal Tracy Guillory is leaving his position.
Guillory, whose resignation is effective tomorrow, is the third principal in the Capital One New-Beginnings Charter School Network of schools to resign mid-year since December.
Earlier this month, Pierre A. Capdau Elementary School Principal J’Vann Martin left the network during her fifth year of service. Parents learned of Martin’s April 5 resignation in a letter sent out last week by network chief Sametta Brown.
[module align=”right” width=”half” type=”pull-quote”]”The explanation given by the employees was [that it was] for personal reasons.” — Sametta Brown, CEO of Capital One-New Beginnings Charter Network[/module]And in December, Lake Area New Tech Early College High School Principal Michael Booker said his own goodbyes.
It wasn’t clear Tuesday why three of the network’s four schools have experienced sudden turnover in leadership midway through the 2012-13 school year. Asked if she could shed light on it, New Beginnings CEO Brown conceded that the departures do leave questions.
“However,” she wrote in an email to The Lens, “the explanation given by the employees was [that it was] for personal reasons.”
It has been a year of transition for New Beginnings, which serves almost 2,000 students at its four schools. When former CEO Vera Triplett resigned in June, the $17 million network named an interim chief for a few months before hiring Brown in September. The network’s chief operations officer also left a few months prior to Triplett.
Brown came in with a bang, paying out teacher bonuses-one at a hefty $43,000-less than four months after she arrived. The money designated for an incentive system came from a federal grant unspent by Triplett’s administration.
Chad Broussard replaced Booker at Lake Area New Tech on Feb. 18, according to a prior interview with Brown. Broussard said he served as a principal in San Antonio prior to accepting the position.
In her April 23 letter to Capdau parents, Brown wrote that Stephanie Jackson would be serving as interim principal in the wake of Martin’s departure. She also said that the network’s interim chief academic officer, Juaquana Stewart, would be monitoring the school’s activities.
It wasn’t clear Tuesday who would lead Gentilly Terrace following Guillory’s departure. Guillory was not immediately reachable at the school by phone or email.
The network’s board of directors are scheduled to meet today at 5 p.m.
