By Richard Sullins | richard@rantnc.com

Less than two weeks after receiving the resignation of former Lee County High School Principal Karen Barnhill after just one school year on the job the Lee County Board of Education on Tuesday named East Lee Principal Robert Newby as the school’s new leader. The board also chose Deep River Elementary Principal Amy Lundy to serve as principal at Southern Lee High School, filling vacancies at both its traditional high schools in a single evening.

The appointments bring veteran leadership to two of of the district’s most visible campuses. Newby has served Lee County Schools in a number of roles over the past 31 years, most recently as principal at East Lee Middle School. Lundy brings 18 years of administrative experience and a proven track record of academic success to her new assignment.

Newby and Lundy will barely have time to catch their breaths before starting their new assignments less than three weeks from now on July 1. Teachers are required to be back at work on August 12 and classes begin for students on August 14.

“Robert Newby, come on down!”

Newby was selected just eight months ago as the Lee County School district’s Principal of the Year by his peers but has become something of a local celebrity since appearing on an episode of “The Price is Right” on May 23. He had attended a taping of the program during spring break in March and was sworn to secrecy about his participation until the program aired because he had won over $62,000 in prizes on the daily “Showcase Showdown.”

But it’s his leadership at East Lee that has earned the respect of those who work with him. Those who know him well speak of the impact his steady hand has on students making critical decisions about the direction their lives will go, and he has a clear understanding that he has a limited amount of time – a window of opportunity – to have that kind of impact on the lives of students in his charge.

What he said last October after being named as Principal of the Year provides a clue as to where his focus will be at LCHS.

“I think for our kids, they need to see somebody like me as an African American man doing something positive in the community. Television has so much negativity. All these things are not good for them,” he said. “They need positive role models within the school system, and I believe I’m one of the people that can give that to them, not just our African American kids, but all kids.”

During his first year that started in July of 2022, Newby helped his students and teachers to improve by a letter grade in the annual report card of performance that each school receives from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction.

The school also met its growth expectations for last year, meaning its growth was consistent with the state average, and he found ways to address some major staffing shortages at East Lee over the previous year.

Lee County Schools Superintendent Dr. Chris Dossenbach believes Newby has what it takes to be successful at LCHS.

“Moving to Lee County High is a return home for Robert, having previously served as one of the school’s assistant principals for seven years,” he said. “I am confident he will use his proven formula of success to quickly move Lee County High forward towards academic excellence and create a school environment that allows students to thrive.”

Amy Lundy gets it done

Dossenbach recognized many of the same qualities in Lundy that he did in Newby, and even so, he pointed out that she possesses a different set of skills that made her the right fit as Southern Lee’s next principal.

“Amy’s outstanding leadership qualities, coupled with her unwavering dedication to student success, make her the perfect candidate for this position. There is no doubt that she will be greatly missed at Deep River, but I am excited for the 1,200 students she will be able to pour into each and every day as she prepares them for life beyond high school,” he said.

While Lundy’s background primarily lies in elementary education, it’s also there that she has honed both a deeply rooted understanding and a practice of the ways in which organization, instruction and effective teaching go beyond traditional report cards. Those will be the keys to her success in the new challenge she will take on come July 1.

She is known as a bridge builder, a person with a unique set of skills that have enabled her to create connections between students, their families, and the teachers she supports. Building these kinds of linkages at the elementary school level as she has done throughout her career, Lundy has consistently demonstrated a unique ability to connect with all students, parents and faculty members and has used those connections to drive school-wide improvement.

The squeeze on funding that’s made dollars for education especially tight over the past two decades in well known right now, but few have addressed the challenge in the way Deep River Elementary has under Lundy’s leadership. The school just completed its second annual fundraising drive for school projects two months ago and had set an ambitious goal of $35,000.

But through the connections the school has built with Lundy at the helm, this year’s total was almost double that – more than $65,000. A single donor who has come to believe in the school and its mission contributed just over half of that amount – $35,000 – in a single donation to this year’s campaign.

Going to his bench

Still just seven months into his first year as Lee County Schools superintendent, Dossenbach continues to show the value he places on bringing people up through the ranks to fill leadership positions as they come open.

At Tuesday’s meeting of the school board, he presented the first ten graduates of what he has called Lee Leadership Development, a group of assistant principals who aspire to become principals during their career. This group will be followed next year by a slightly different grouping, this second one being teachers who have shown an interest in becoming assistant principals.

Dossenbach has put the systems in place to keep the leadership pipeline running full bore with experienced and well-trained leadership being prepared now for vacancies that will occur in the future, and his nomination of Newby and Lundy had the first class of the Lee Leadership Development program sitting up straight and taking notes.