DATE: Friday, November 21, 1997             TAG: 9711210653

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MATTHEW BOWERS 

        STAFF WRITER  

DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH                        LENGTH:   61 lines

ADMINISTRATIVE JOB CREATED FOR PRINCIPAL FROM WILSON HIGH

Demoted Woodrow Wilson High School principal William E. Gibson Jr. is on the move again, this time to a position created this week in the public schools administration.

Kerri L. Albertson, spokeswoman for the Portsmouth Public Schools, said Thursday that Gibson - under fire since a brawl broke out last month at his school - will become ``acting principal on special assignment'' at the Instructional Resource Center.

The center is an auxiliary facility on Hartford Street housing the assistant superintendent for instruction, curriculum supervisors, researchers, special education administrators and other offices.

On Monday, Gibson had said that Superintendent Richard D. Trumble was sending him back to his old job at his old school - assistant principal at Churchland High School - a move that Gibson said surprised and unfairly ``disgraced'' him.

Gibson will start his new job Monday, the spokeswoman said. He will receive his same $59,403 salary.

His tasks will include helping city schools align with new city and state standards for teaching students and running schools; coordinating teacher training and student internships; helping with attendance zone waiver requests and appeals; coordinating special district-wide projects as assigned; and handling disciplinary matters and hearings of student appeals.

Ironically, it was lax discipline and weak administration that parents and teachers blamed in part for the fighting Oct. 14 inside and outside Wilson High.

The fights sent 22 students to the school nurse and three pregnant students to a hospital for checkups, although no serious injuries were reported. It resulted in criminal charges against several Wilson and other school students for fighting or illegally pulling a fire alarm. And it caused Trumble to take the extraordinary step of closing the school for a day for safety reasons.

Gibson, 52 and a 23-year veteran of the school system, has been principal of Wilson High since 1996. Rosa M. Wells-Garris, principal of Waters Middle School, will step in as acting principal of Wilson until the end of the year, said a memo dated Wednesday and released Thursday from Superintendent Trumble to all school employees.

Marie N. Shepherd, an assistant principal of Hunt-Mapp Middle School, will serve as acting principal of Waters Middle. Raymond W. Lowther, a music supervisor, will fill in as acting assistant principal at Hunt-Mapp.

All jobs will be posted at the end of the school year, spokeswoman Albertson said.

``Really, no one new is being hired, so there's no change'' in the school system's budget to accommodate Gibson's new position, Albertson said.

Albertson referred further questions on Gibson's new job to Superintendent Trumble's office. Trumble didn't respond to repeated requests for comment Thursday.

Gibson, who worked at Wilson High on Thursday, would not comment on the move. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]

William E. Gibson Jr., who said he was demoted Monday, is now

assigned as an ``acting principal on special assignment.''

Discipline to be part of the job.

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