Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School has a new principal.
Dr. Donna Redmond Jones, who has served as principal at Rosa Parks Middle School in Olney for six years, will take over at Bethesda-Chevy Chase starting this summer.
Jones, 42, was officially appointed to the position by the Board of Education this morning.
“The very, very first piece as a new principal is just going in and getting to know people,” Jones said. “This is a place of academic excellence. It is a place of high engagement in student activities. It is a place of high community engagement and I really just want to get to know everybody.”
Jones, whom students call “Dr. Jones,” said she’ll spend the next few weeks getting up to speed with outgoing Bethesda-Chevy Chase Principal Karen Lockard.
In March, Lockard announced she will retire June 30.
Jones, a Richmond, Virginia, native, came to Montgomery County Public Schools in 2002 as a staff development teacher at Seneca Valley High School in Germantown.
She was an assistant principal at Winston Churchill High School in Potomac and an assistant principal and intern principal at Benjamin Banneker Middle School in Burtonsville before taking over the top job at Rosa Parks.
The Olney middle school was recognized for having the highest number of volunteer service hours from parents and community partners, according to Associate Superintendent Christopher Garran.
"Dr. Jones participates in local events and meets with homeowner's associations, civic associations and other community organizations to forge relationships and strengthen communication between the school and the community," Garran wrote in an email to Bethesda-Chevy Chase parents. "She is committed to building upon the legacy of excellence at B-CC."
Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School is projected to surpass 2,000 students by the 2016-2017 school year.
With an enrollment of more than 1,800 students on one of the county’s smallest high school sites, the school is scheduled for a new three-story wing to be built on its north side.
The school system plans to start the roughly 45,000-square-foot project in January 2016 and complete it in August 2017, though the project could be delayed because of budget concerns.
