WINDSOR – Principals throughout Bertie will be on the move.

Tuesday night, the Bertie County Board of Education approved five new or reassigned principals throughout the district. Only one of the district’s principals will be in the same position next year.

The changes began at the Bertie STEM High School where Fannie Williams was named to succeed retiring Glenwood F. Mitchell. Williams, a longtime principal in Bertie County, currently serves as Personnel Administrator for the school district.

All four elementary schools in the county will get new leaders. Two of them – Colerain Elementary and West Bertie Elementary – were vacant and two other principals were shifted.

Karen Rodman will be moving from Windsor Elementary School to Aulander Elementary School while Elaine White will make the opposite journey, leaving Aulander to become Principal at Windsor Elementary.

Colerain Elementary School will now be led by Ricky Eley, who served as principal of the now closed Bertie Academy. Eley has been a high school principal as well.

William “Trey” Peele III will be leaving Bertie Preparatory High School to become Principal of West Bertie Elementary School. That move was necessitated by the state not recognizing Bertie Prep as a separate school from Bertie High School.

“We have paid the (Bertie Prep) principal out of local funds and with finances being what they are, it is important to be good stewards of our money,” Bertie Superintendent of Schools Dr. Debbie Harris-Rollins explained.

Bertie Prep will now fall under the new principal of Bertie High School with an assistant principal on campus to manage day-to-day affairs.

Sandra Hardy will be the district’s only principal who will not move as she will continue to guide Bertie Middle School.

The administrative changes include assistant principals.

Bertie High School will have two new assistant principals in the form of Wesley Dudley, who came from West Bertie, and Tyneka Holley, who is new to the district.

West Bertie Elementary will have Clara Lee as the new assistant principal. She comes to Kelford from Colerain Elementary School where she served as assistant principal and later as interim principal.

Bertie Middle School’s new assistant principal will be Wanda Cofield. The former interim principal at Bertie Early College will join Calvin Moore working as assistants to Hardy.

Daphne Williams will remain Assistant Principal at Windsor Elementary.

There will be no assistant principals at Aulander, Colerain or Bertie STEM.

The principals named Tuesday night leaves only Bertie High School without a permanent leader. Mitchell, who served as principal of both BHS and STEM, will continue to handle day-to-day operations until a new principal is named.

Dr. Harris-Rollins said she believed the new educational leader at the high school could be chosen as early as next week.

As for the district’s Personnel Administrator, which Williams is vacating when she takes over STEM, Dr. Harris-Rollins said the position would be advertised seeking the best qualified person.

She also announced that the position of Director of Transportation would remain vacant at this time due to budget concerns. She said it was not eliminated, but would remain unfilled.

The department will be restructured with the existing personnel to handle supervisory roles.