NOTE: This post has changed. Please see the update regarding the new
West End Elementary School principal position.
This was the news release from October. Please note, the information in this post is no longer current or accurate.
Interim Superintendent Lois F. Berlin has appointed John B. Murphy, a well-respected and experienced education professional, as the principal of the new West End Elementary School.
Murphy has founded and opened a number of new schools and facilities in his long career as a school and district administrator, including an elementary school, a middle school and two high schools in New York, a residential school serving a special needs population in the Bronx, N.Y., an academy in Brooklyn, N.Y. that served students in poverty, an international secondary school, and an online school in China.
“We are delighted to welcome such a highly regarded and experienced principal to be the first principal of our new West End Elementary School. Mr. Murphy brings a wealth of knowledge in curriculum development and instruction to ACPS. He has a proven ability to plan and execute the successful opening of a new school—something that we know to be a challenge. We look forward to working closely with him to make the new West End Elementary School an integral part of the West End community and an academic success,” said Dr. Berlin.
The vacant office building at 1701 N. Beauregard Street will become the first new school in ACPS since 2000. As space in urban settings becomes more constrained, other school divisions have already shown that this model of retrofitting vacant office space is the model of the future and an effective reuse of space.
The opening of the new West End Elementary School coincides with ACPS plans to implement new school boundaries in the fall of 2018, and addresses some of the urgent capacity needs that the school division is facing. The first four floors of the building will be used for the new 650-seat elementary school, while the top two floors will be used as office space by ACPS. Outdoor play space, including a basketball court, will be added on the roof of the adjacent parking garage at 1705 N. Beauregard Street, with a raised walkway from the school to allow for easy and secure student and staff access.
Murphy, who will start November 1, will direct the development of the new school’s vision and philosophy, oversee the hiring of teachers and administrative staff, and work with facilities and technology to ensure the school facility is ready to open on time.
“I have had an expansive administrative career that has allowed me to lead elementary and secondary schools, launch new schools, and transform failing schools into places where all students were treated as individual learners and where success defined our effort. Over the course of my career I have gained a pre-kindergarten through grade 12 perspective on education, a unique appreciation for what all learners need in order to be successful, and the practical experience necessary to lead, support and empower staff and students as principal of the new West End Elementary School,” Murphy said.
Murphy joins ACPS from Schuyler Achievement Academy in Albany, N.Y., which saw significant gains in English language arts and math, increased student daily attendance to 94 percent and staff daily attendance to 95.5 percent, and, under his leadership, exceeded the targeted academic indicators set by the New York State Department of Education. He has been a school and district administrator in New York State for the past 28 years, serving as an elementary, middle and high school principal, as well as district director of secondary education and school improvement manager.
Murphy, who is fluent in Spanish and holds a language and culture certificate from the University of Salamanca in Spain, has been assistant director of the Hudson Valley Regional Bilingual Education Resource Network at Ulster BOCES in New York State and has served as a project manager for school improvement in Puerto Rico. He has also been the founding superintendent and head of school for an online academy based in China, and the founding American principal of the Bachuan International School in Tongliang, China.
He holds a master’s degree in urban education and Spanish, a professional diploma in school district administration, is in the doctoral program for educational leadership at Fordham University in New York, and has attended leadership training at the Principals’ Center at Harvard University.