By Rose Laudicina
Staff Writer
One Chapel Hill-Carrboro school is gaining from another district school’s loss.
LaVerne Mattocks is leaving Phoenix Academy after three years as principal to become the new principal of Carrboro High School.
“I am really eager to get started,†Mattocks said. “I am ready to start extending myself to the community and hopefully we can do this work together.â€
Mattocks is replacing Kelly Batten, who has served as CHS principal since August 2008. Batten announced in April that he would be leaving the district to join Chatham County Schools as the district executive director of secondary education.
Batten started his new job this month; Mattocks took over at CHS on July 1.
So far the transition is going smoothly.
“I had a pretty good relationship with Mr. Batten,†Mattocks said. “I felt like in a lot of ways I would be a good fit for Carrboro High.â€
In an April interview with The Citizen, Batten said that his replacement would inherit a school with great potential, something Mattocks is eager to develop.
“I am excited about the possibilities,†Mattocks said. “I’m someone who always likes to challenge myself.â€
In her three years at Phoenix Academy, an alternative high school in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools district for students who are “severely disaffected from the educational process,†Mattocks had the distinction of being the school’s first principal. In that roll she was able to help Phoenix Academy transform from an alternative program to a full alternative high school, which included the school becoming accredited.
“I am really proud of that work,†Mattocks said of her years at Phoenix. “What I am going to miss most about Phoenix is the people, the relationships and partnerships that I have made.â€
“But I am really looking forward to making the same kind of relationships in Carrboro,†she added.
Before taking the position at Phoenix, Mattocks worked in the Orange County Schools district at Orange High School and in the Durham Public Schools. When she chose to leave Orange County Schools for CHCCS and Phoenix Academy, she said she was “impressed by the opportunity to do some real moving and shaking at Phoenix.â€
Mattocks said she chose to apply for the position at CHS because she felt Phoenix had improved a significant amount during her time there and she wanted to continue to grow professionally.
“I always felt that Phoenix each year was getting better and better and closer to a point where I felt it was appropriate to pursue some other opportunities professionally for myself.â€
Additionally, with the district transitioning to the new common-core standards for curriculum, Mattocks felt now was a good time to move.
“Everyone is going to be in a state of transition next year,†she said. “Everyone will be learning together.â€