Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 14, 1991 TAG: 9103150415
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: S-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By NEAL THOMPSON/ EDUCATION WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Marsha Christy, current principal at Grandin Court Elementary School, will become principal at Crystal Spring Elementary, which is closed this year for renovations.
Phyllis Cundiff, coordinator for speech and language pathology programs, will replace Christy at Grandin Court. It will be her first principalship.
The two appointments become effective April 8, Superintendent Frank Tota announced at last week's School Board meeting.
Christy, 45, is in her sixth year at Grandin Court. She helped coordinate the school's REACH special education program from handicapped preschoolers.
Before coming to Grandin Court, Christy worked in Virginia Tech's College of Education, where she previously had received a doctorate in education administration. She also has taught hearing impaired preschoolers in Montgomery County.
She said she looks forward to restarting Crystal Spring after its year-long hiatus.
"To start a school off from scratch will be exciting. It's not often you get that opportunity. It sounds like a real challenge," she said.
Cundiff, 34, has worked 13 years for city schools, the last five at her current position. Before that, she conducted speech and language therapy sessions for students who needed extra help. And four years ago, she started a language enrichment program to help young pupils from disadvantaged homes with poor language skills.
She looks forward to leaving the central administration office and actually having a school to call her own, she said.
Cundiff said she thinks Grandin Court is a good starter school for a new principal because "it's a small school, and there's really good parent support over there," she said.
Cundiff has a master's degree in speech and language pathology from Radford University and has been endorsed in elementary administration and special education supervision by Radford and the University of Virginia.
by CNB