The city's regionwide search for a new principal for Plum Cove Elementary School ended inside the building.
Superintendent Christopher Farmer announced Tammy Morgan, vice principal at Beeman Memorial and Plum Cove elementary schools, was chosen from 22 other applicants to take over as principal of Plum Cove for the next academic year.
"We were looking for someone who has clear leadership qualities and can engage teachers, kids and parents in the school," Farmer said in making the announcement Friday. "Someone who will set high expectations and help people work toward them."
Beeman and Plum Cove have shared principals since 1981, and now both will have separate leaders as part of the district's ongoing reorganization plan.
With the closing of Fuller School, which had housed the city's fifth-graders, Beeman will be converted from a school that serves second- through fifth-graders to one that serves kindergartners through fifth-graders. Plum Cove will go from a kindergarten and first-grade school to a kindergarten through fifth-grade school.
Morgan's hiring comes after the district appointed Ellen Sibley, now the principal of Fuller School, to become principal of Beeman next year. The district decided not to renew the contract of Beeman and Plum Cove Principal Sue Ellen Hogan.
Farmer said even though the search panel, which he led with parent and staff representatives, had settled on someone from inside the district, parents could be confident that Morgan was the most qualified of a deep pool of applicants.
He said those applicants had included principals and administrators from communities in Massachusetts as well as New Hampshire and Vermont. Morgan was one of three finalists, including a principal from a Natick school and another from a western Massachusetts town that he declined to name.
Farmer said negotiations with Morgan over a salary package would begin soon.
Morgan takes over as principal after starting her career in Gloucester public schools as a library and information technology aide at Fuller School in 1992. Since 1995, Morgan has been a districtwide information technology program manager, helping the city's schools integrate technology into the curriculum for kindergartners through 12th-graders.
Reached by telephone Friday, Morgan said she was excited about the position, but that she did not want to talk about what strengths she would bring to Plum Cove or what challenges the school faced.
"All I can say is I offer stability," Morgan said.
Patrick Anderson may be contacted at panderson@gloucestertimes.com.
