District Leadership Experiences Major Changes

Three Delaware school districts will be under new leadership for the upcoming 2014-15 school year after another wave of superintendent turnover.

In Lake Forest School District, recently-named superintendent Jason Conway took the reins from Dan Curry, who served as the district’s superintendent for 12 years. Conway, who began his career as a social studies teacher at Caesar Rodney High School, most recently served as an assistant superintendent in Pennsylvania.

Additionally, Colonial School District completed its search to fill the position vacated by Dorothy Linn, who announced back in February her plans to retire at the end of this school year after four years in the position and 26 years total in the district. Dusty Blakey, the new superintendent, will bring to the position 13 years of experience in the district ranging from middle school principal and high school assistant principal to the district’s director of personnel.

Seaford School District will also experience a change in school chief officer as it says goodbye to Kevin Carson, who has served as interim superintendent of the district since February, when the superintendent of two years, Shawn Joseph, resigned. The district welcomes David Perrington, who will leave his role as Assistant Superintendent of the Caesar Rodney School District.

These three leadership changes represent the larger turnover trend throughout the state. Since 2011, 11 of Delaware’s 19 school districts, nearly 60%, have experienced a superintendent change.

New superintendents have had to pick up the baton from their predecessors to ensure the rollout of major efforts to improve Delaware public schools. In his introduction letter to the Lake Forest Community, Dr. Conway writes, “My mission as our next Superintendent is…to maintain and grow a rigorous teaching and learning environment that provides every student with a sense of belonging while helping students to grow intellectually, emotionally and socially. It is critical to every student’s success that they graduate from high school with the habits of mind and skills necessary to pursue and achieve their goals and dreams.”