Three Bowie Principals Moving to Positions in County

As students head into summer vacation to re-energize for the upcoming school year, the principals of three Bowie schools will be moving on to greater leadership roles in the county.

Jane Spence from , Kathleen Brady from and Chris Mills from , starting July 1, will begin new roles as instructional directors for Prince George’s County Public Schools.

They will join 11 other instructors from around the county to provide better guidance and management to the county’s more than 200 principals, said Assistant Superintendent Andrew Zuckerman.

Spence, who has been principal at Bowie High for four years, said that although she is going to miss much about being principal at Bowie —the teachers, her team and the students and the “zany things they do — she is looking forward to sharing what she learned at the high school with the larger community.

“I have long thought that my experience at Bowie High is not something that needs to be kept a secret,” Spence said. “I think when you learn things about what works, those things should be shared.  I could be selfish and stick with what I know, which would probably be easier, but I have never been one to run from a challenge, and I am positive God did not bring me this far to leave me.”

According to an article in The Gazette, Mary Nusser, the president of Bowie’s Parent Teacher Student Organization, was quoted as saying Spence’s leaving is “a big loss.”

“She’s a collaborative, kind, forthright person who always played by the book and did the right thing,” Nusser said in the article.

Ten-year principal at Samuel Ogle, Kathleen Brady said she will also miss the students but is looking forward to her new role to help more students.

“I’m very fortunate to have the opportunity to improve the education of a broader range of children,” Brady said. “The children really interest me and excite me about the position.”

William Kelly, assistant principal at Samuel Ogle, worked with Brady for four years. In addition to missing Brady’s leadership in the school and her ability to “make everyone around her better,” Kelly will also remember trading jabs with Brady about their favorite baseball teams, he said.

 “She is a hard worker, extremely professional, no-nonsense type of individual,” Kelly said. “She is an excellent teacher and is an extremely knowledgeable instructional leader.”

Chris Mills has been at Kenilworth for eight years and stressed how much he would miss the students.

“I’m going to miss the day-to-day interaction with the children,” Mills said. “I won’t have the same level of intimacy with the students and watching them grow. By the time they get to the fifth grade, I really know them.”

However, Mills said that he is most looking forward to sharing his knowledge of instructional models, which he considers a “huge intellectual curiosity” with other principals in the county.

While the county and state take part in writing up the Common Core Curriculum for public schools, Mills said he wants to stress the importance of encouraging students to be critical thinkers.

“Teachers are going to have to start talking less,” Mills said, adding that teachers should be asking the students for more than recall and should “draw a lot more out of the children.”

Assistant Superintendent Andrew Zuckerman said the purpose of the new instructional director position is to provide a “better, tighter management structure.”

For the past two years, assistant superintendents and other directors in the county were responsible for overseeing about 40 schools each, an “unwieldy” amount, Zuckerman said. With the new system, the 14 new instructional directors will supervise about 14 principals each and report to assistant superintendents.