by Susan Dickson
Staff Writer
Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools has announced that Carrboro High School Principal Jeff Thomas has been reassigned to the district’s central office and that Rodney Trice, the district’s director of curriculum and instruction, will serve as interim principal.
District officials wrote in an email to The Citizen that Thomas had one year remaining on his contract and that he “is not filling a specific position and his responsibilities are yet to be determined.â€
Thomas served as principal of Carrboro High since 2006 and opened the school last August.
According to a district press release, Trice will serve as interim principal at Carrboro High over the summer until the selection process can be completed.
The move comes on the heels of the release of the results of a high school climate student survey administered to all district high school students in January.
According to the survey results, 51.5 percent of Carrboro High School students reported that they were proud to be a student at their school, compared with 78.8 percent and 74.9 percent of students at Chapel Hill High School and East Chapel Hill High School, respectively.
In addition, 50.1 percent of Carrboro High students reported that they would recommend their school to their friends, compared with 77.6 percent of Chapel Hill High students and 73.1 percent of East Chapel Hill High students.
The school board is scheduled to review high school climate student survey results tonight (Thursday) during a work session.
Board member Jamezetta Bedford said the survey results might be attributable to older students at Carrboro High who were redistricted to the school when it opened last year.
“It’s really hard to be a junior there when you have your loyalty to your other high schools,†Bedford said. “It was a tough transition for juniors and many of the sophomores.â€
Bedford added that many of the sports teams struggled during their first season, which could have lowered student morale. In addition, Bedford said more students were caught breaking rules at Carrboro High than at other schools because the newer building has more cameras than the other high schools, which could have affected the students’ views of their school.
District officials expect that Trice will serve as interim principal until August, when they hope to make a permanent appointment prior to the beginning of the new school year.
Trice has served as director of curriculum and instruction for the district since March 2006. Before coming to Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, he worked as a regional Title I consultant for the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. In addition, Trice served as assistant principal at Cedar Ridge High School in Orange County Schools for two years.
He holds a doctorate in educational leadership from UNC, a master’s degree in educational leadership from the University of Detroit Mercy and a bachelor’s degree in biology from Morehouse College.