Manatee County transfers assistant principals throughout district

Students and parents upset with an assistant principal transfer at Braden River High School have taken to writing Superintendent Diana Greene and the Manatee County School Board to voice their concern, hoping the decision will be reversed.

Don French, an assistant principal at Braden River High School who helped open the school, is one of 19 assistant principals who will transfer to a new school for the 2016-17 academic year.

French will leave Braden River and head to an assistant principal job at Bayshore High School. The assistant principals moves were announced by the school district on the same day the school district announced the promotion of five assistant principals to vacant principal jobs.

The announcement of the assistant principal promotions filled all the district’s principal vacancies. After moving some of the assistant principals around, the district has 10 assistant principal jobs to fill during the summer months, spokesman Mike Barber said.

Principal and assistant principals transfers are approved by the school board during meetings but fall under Greene’s authority as superintendent. Retirements and other issues — including the merger of Orange Ridge-Bullock Elementary School and Rogers Garden Elementary School — meant more principal changes were necessary before the start of the 2016-17 year.

“This is a group of talented and proven administrators, and all of these moves are being made for the advancement of the entire School District of Manatee County,” Cynthia Saunders, deputy superintendent of instruction, said in a statement.

Blake Middleton, a senior at Braden River and the president of the Student Government Association, wrote to Greene and the board on Tuesday, asking them to reverse the decision to move French from Braden River to Bayshore. He called French a “special somebody” who helped him get through high school.

“He is not just an administrator. He is more than that not only to me but the entire Pirate Nation,” Middleton wrote.

It’s not just students who are voicing their concerns to the school board either, but parents as well.

Maribeth Bouche, who has two children who graduated Braden River and one child left at Braden River, said French was the best thing to happen to Braden River and moving him would be a shame.

“Please reconsider any thoughts you may have on transferring Don French to another school. He is BRHS and the students value him as an administrator,” she wrote to the superintendent and the school board.

Middleton and others are planning to attend the upcoming school board meeting to speak about the transfer.

This story was originally published May 17, 2016 at 3:09 PM with the headline "Manatee County transfers assistant principals throughout district."