Updated: Superintendent Announces Reversal on 2-School Principal; Kenwood Position to be Posted

Principal Patricia Pell has declined the additional job as principal of and there will no longer be an assistant principal for both schools, Superintendent Cheryl Rogers announced Tuesday evening at a joint School Board/City Council meeting at . 

Rogers said the parents' as principal of both Kenwood and Schalm was a factor in Pell opting out of the job.

The school district will post a job opening for a Kenwood principal, Rogers said, and she will also accept input from parents on the attributes they would like to see in a new principal.

"It's sad that (Kenwood) will never get to know this outstanding individual and what she could bring to this building," Rogers said.

Rogers said Pell had some concerns after a group of Kenwood parents took a stand against the two-school principal appointment at a heated school board meeting on Monday night.

"Maybe she felt she would never be accepted (at Kenwood)," Rogers said. 

Parents said Monday night that their frustrations were not with Pell and the recently hired assistant principal Suzanne Kropfreiter, but rather with the lack of transparency in the process.

Rogers said it was her responsibility to make the decision and believed one principal and one assistant principal at both schools was in the best interest of the students. 

"They won't have the opportunity of experiencing that," Rogers said.

Kenwood PTA President Kimmi Carlesimo said parents are saddened because they don't want to be perceived as a few parents who ruined a great opportunity for the school.

"We came together because the board allowed Mrs. Rogers to create a new position without posting it, interviewing for it, having the board formally approve it and without any kind of input from either school whether it was from staff or parents," Carlesimo said in an email to the Clawson Patch. "We all know that Ms. Pell has done many wonderful things for Schalm and would have also done wonderful things for Kenwood as well. We are very sorry that Ms. Pell was put in the middle of this and made to feel unwanted at our school as that was never our intent."

Rogers said she plans to send out a letter to parents alerting them of the change, and they will have a chance to email their input to school board President Kevin Turner. She said she still has a vision for more collaboration among the two elementary schools.

The district will seek a new principal that is a hard-worker, focused on developing teachers, a team player and multi-talented, Rogers said.

"They have to be able to wear many hats," Turner said.

Keep checking the Clawson Patch for updates on this story.