North county schools welcome new principals

Thursday, Sept. 29, 2005

Several North Frederick County elementary schools have opened their doors to new principals this year. Each plans unique ways to help their schools’ students and staff strive in the coming school year.

Glade Elementary

Principal Karen Miller said Glade Elementary School’s greatest strengths are its community involvement and outstanding teaching staff.

The school has already raised $2,000 for hurricane relief and is looking at other ways to support three children who have moved to the community through the school’s Character Counts program, Miller said.

‘‘I believe that a strong partnership between home, school and community is essential to provide the best educational program for our children,” Miller said.

Miller grew up in Westchester County in New York and was born in the Bronx. She graduated from Somers High School in 1975 and earned her bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Shepherd College in West Virginia in 1979. She earned her master’s degree in reading from Hood College in 1988 and also received her administrator’s certification from there.

Miller taught in an elementary school in Bunker Hill, W. Va., for a year. In 1980, she began teaching for the Frederick County Public Schools system at Green Valley Elementary School. Two years later, Miller was transferred to Waverley Elementary School , where she taught for five years.

She taught for 15 years at Middletown Elementary School and served as an assistant principal there for four years before becoming principal at Glade. Miller has taught for the county at every elementary school grade level.

Lewistown Elementary

Lewistown Elementary School Principal Kelly Benvengi served as the school’s acting principal five years ago for six weeks.

‘‘It’s sort of like coming home,” Benvengi said. ‘‘I’m very familiar with most of the staff here since not many left since then.”

Benvengi knew she wanted to teach elementary school at the age of 6.

‘‘That’s when I decided I was going to teach my baby sister how to tie her shoes,” Benvengi said. ‘‘And since then, I’ve been teaching every opportunity I could find.

Kids are everything to me in whatever capacity I work.”

Benvengi grew up in Shepherdstown, W.Va., and graduated from Jefferson High School in 1979. She received her bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Shepherd College in 1983, and she taught for a year in Texas and for two years in Jefferson County, W.Va., before she began teaching for Frederick County in 1988. During that time, Benvengi took a one-year sabbatical while she earned her master’s degree in curriculum and instruction from Western Maryland College and volunteered at her son’s middle school.

Benvengi has taught grades one through five for the county and is very familiar with curriculum, she said. She served as assistant principal at Kemptown Elementary School for three years, starting in 1999; at Monocacy Elementary for one year and at Sabillasville Elementary School for two years.

Sabillasville Elementary

Sabillasville Elementary Principal Karen Locke said she feels the greatest strength of the school is the way the teachers collaborate and work together.

‘‘There’s no slack,” Locke said. ‘‘One person picks up where the other left off. There’s a lot of camaraderie and pride in the school. The teachers have a strong sense of responsibility to see that the kids get the best education possible.”

Locke grew up in the Pittsburgh area and graduated from Brownsville Area High School in Brownsville, Pa. in 1979. She earned her bachelor’s degree in elementary education from the California University of Pennsylvania in1983 and her master’s degree from there as a reading specialist in 1984.

‘‘My mother was a teacher for 35 years, so I knew from the time I was 5 years old that that’s what I wanted to do,” Locke said. ‘‘She loved her job, and I knew if anyone loved their job that much, that that’s something I wanted to do.”

Locke started out as a reading resource teacher for grades three, four and five at Bester Elementary School in Washington County in January 1985. She taught grades two and three at Smithsburg Elementary School for two years, after which she went back to Bester as a reading intervention teacher for kindergarten and grade one for seven years.

Locke served her first year as assistant principal at Fountaindale Elementary, from 1988 to 1999, after which she transferred to Frederick County. She was assistant principal at Thurmont Elementary School from 1999-2001 and was assistant principal at Myersville Elementary School until coming to Sabillasville as principal this year.

Sabillasville Elementary will add the Systematic Instruction for Phonics program for students who have difficulty reading, writing and decoding words and also has a guidance counselor for the first time in a number of years, Locke said. Locke also plans to continue to work on getting central air conditioning in the school to replace the noisy window units that are in the classrooms now.

‘‘I would love for the parents to free feel to come in to the building to visit, volunteer and call me with any questions,” Locke said. ‘‘I want us to be like a family where there is no hesitation to address needs or concerns or even offer feedback.”

Kate Krietz, the new principal at Thurmont Elementary School, was unavailable for comment for this story by The Gazette’s presstime Wednesday.