Manatee school district announces promotions for four assistant principals

Four more schools will have new principals at the start of the 2019-20 school year, according to a news release from the School District of Manatee County.

All four of the new principals currently work as assistant principals at local schools. One of them, Bernadette Pletcher, won the Outstanding Assistant Principal Achievement Award from the Florida Department of Education earlier last week.

“This is a group of outstanding educators who have earned their way into the positions they are being named to today,” said Superintendent Cynthia Saunders. “All of them have the skills and experience necessary to be extremely effective school leaders and we are excited for the school communities they will be serving.”

Pletcher, who has been an assistant principal at Tillman Elementary since 2016, will become the new principal at Bayshore Elementary. She joined the district in 2009 and previously worked as an assistant principal at Anna Maria Elementary and the former G.D. Rogers Garden Elementary.

Kimberlain Zenon-Richardson, an assistant principal at Lee Middle, has been named the new principal at Braden River Middle, where she previously served as assistant principal between 2012 and 2016.

The new principal at Daughtrey Elementary will be Shelby Bench, who has served as assistant principal at the school since July 2018. She also worked as an assistant principal at Witt and Blackburn Elementary schools and as a school coordinator at Mills Elementary.

Carol Ricks, who has served as assistant principal at McNeal Elementary since July 2016, has been named the principal at Myakka City Elementary. She previously worked as a student support specialist at Witt Elementary and as a teacher at Witt, Myakka City and Tara Elementary schools.

The new positions are effective July 1, the school district says.