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Liberty Elementary School Principal Drenna Reineck spent Tuesday shuttling back and forth between the office that had been her post for four years and her new office at Brunswick Elementary School.

Tuesday was her last day at the school, and by that afternoon, the school's profile Web site already reflected the change in administration.

Gerald DeGrange, former principal of Brunswick Elementary School, had replaced Reineck as the administrator on the site. Reineck's name was listed as principal on Brunswick Elementary's profile site as well.

The change was official.

Reineck reflected Tuesday on her time as principal of Liberty Elementary, citing a strong community involvement as one of her favorite parts of being its principal.

"There's a strong sense of community," she said. "I know that sounds a little corny."

But she said this community gave the school the energy to make important changes for the students, including a new playground that replaced older play equipment at the school, which parents saw as rusty and unsafe. The PTA collected $80,000 from parents and organizations, and cut the ribbon on the new playground May 15.

"They were the life force behind the new play equipment," Reineck said.

The school also was active in Libertytown's community, and Reineck said she was proud of contributions parents and students made to the Libertytown Food Pantry, which this year alone totaled 2,746 pounds.

But Reineck herself was also involved with the students. She said that she particularly enjoyed teaching an after-school enrichment program called "Math Wizards" in which fifth-graders would work on math-related projects. She said that the challenges at Liberty Elementary were similar to those that administrators at any school work through, and most of all, she wanted to ensure that students reached their full potential. "That's not specific to Liberty," she said.

Reineck was an administrator in Washington County for six years, and prior to that she was an assistant principal in Berkeley County, W.Va., for part of a year. She was a teacher there and in Florida for four years prior to that.

On moving to Brunswick, Reineck said that she was looking forward to adapting to the school's specific needs and working with the new community. "I always like a new challenge," Reineck said. For his part, DeGrange was also excited to move to Liberty, which he said has a strong community, much as Brunswick does.

DeGrange retired from education some years ago, but was rehired as principal of Brunswick in 2005. He said that state pension law only allows him to work at a school for four years before he must move elsewhere.

He came on at a time when Brunswick Elementary's students were faring poorly on state standardized tests, with only 50 percent passing the Maryland School Assessment, a test of math and reading abilities. During his tenure at the school, he saw the passing rate increase to upper 80s and lower 90s, he said.

It was with a mix of pride and sadness that he packed up the last of his files he wanted to take with him to Liberty on Tuesday, he said. While he would miss many of the friends he made while working at the school, he was looking forward to the challenge of taking over at Liberty.

"It's certainly not sad when the kids do so well that they work you out of a job," he said.

E-mail Christian Brown at chbrown@gazette.net.