Principal, former Teacher of the Year to be promoted if Muscogee board OKs leadership moves

A principal and a former Teacher of the Year are on track for promotions in the Muscogee County School District.

Superintendent David Lewis has recommended the MCSD board approve these leadership changes:

• Blanchard Elementary School principal Stephanie Dalton-Faulk to be MCSD school effectiveness director.

• Sheryl Green, the 2015 MCSD Teacher of the Year when she taught English at Jordan Vocational High School and now a personalized learning specialist in the MCSD Division of Teaching and Learning, to be an assistant principal at Northside High School.

Dalton-Faulk would succeed Susan Jones, who retired. Green would succeed Natalie Teasley, who now is an assistant principal at Harris County High School.

The board is scheduled to vote on these recommendations during its Oct. 21 meeting. Here is more information about Dalton-Faulk and Green, based on their resumes attached to the agenda.

Stephanie Dalton-Faulk

Dalton-Faulk has been an educator for 23 years, all in Columbus public schools.

After starting her career as a Title I intervention and fifth-grade teacher at Lonnie Jackson Academy (2001-05), Dalton-Faulk was an academic coach at Lonnie Jackson (2005-06) and Rigdon Road Elementary School (2006-11).

She was a shared assistant principal at Rigdon Road and Georgetown Elementary School (2011-13), then principal of Forrest Road Elementary School (2013-18) before becoming principal of Blanchard (2018-present).

Dalton-Faulk earned a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education from Columbus State University (2001), a master’s degree (2002) and a specialist’s degree (2006) in elementary education from Troy University-Phenix City, and a specialist’s degree in educational administration and school leadership from Capella University (2008).

Sheryl Green

Green has been an educator for 29 years, including 11 years in Columbus public schools.

After starting her career as a teacher of study skills and grammar, as well as a soccer coach, at North Greenville College (1995-98), Green was a graduate assistant soccer coach at Lander University (1998-2001), a reading/writing teacher for grades 1-5 in Calhoun, South Carolina, and an 11th-grade American literature teacher in Abbeville, South Carolina (2001-04), where she coached girls golf and coed soccer.

Following a stint of teaching and coaching overseas in Austria (2004-06), Green returned to the United States as an 11^th-grade English teacher in Charlotte.

Green moved to Georgia, where she taught English at Social Circle High School (2007-12). She joined MCSD as an English teacher at Hardaway High School (2013) and Jordan (2013-17).

She was an academic coach at Jordan (2017-18), a teacher quality specialist for MCSD (2018-21), an adjunct English instructor at Columbus State University (2017) and an adjunct instructor for the Middle Georgia Regional Education Service Agency (2020-21) before she became a personalized learning specialist for MCSD (2021-present).

Green earned a bachelor’s degree in English from High Point University (1995), a master’s degree in teaching from Lander University (1999) and a specialist’s degree in teacher leadership from Piedmont University (2012).

Reasons for recommendations

The board didn’t publicly discuss these recommendations during Monday night’s work session, but Lewis explained his reasons in an emailed interview with the Ledger-Enquirer.

“Mrs. Dalton-Faulk has proven to be a highly successful principal at two different schools within our district,” Lewis said. “Specific to this position, Mrs. Dalton-Faulk has demonstrated successful experience in school improvement as a school turnaround leader, as evidenced by the work she led while serving as the principal of Forest Road Elementary School.

“She is a data-driven leader who possesses a thorough knowledge base of effective instructional strategies and practices to address individual student and group learning needs. Moreover, her experience as an intervention teacher and speaker of other languages, as academic coach, and a graduate of our district’s Aspiring Leaders Academy make her an ideal choice to lead and collaborate with her colleagues in this important work.”

As MCSD’s school effectiveness director, Dalton-Faulk “will primarily work with challenged schools and oversee district accreditation as well as school and district improvement planning processes,” Lewis said.

Lewis said he selected Dalton-Faulk among 14 applicants and seven interviewed candidates.

MCSD has a pool of 81 applicants for assistant principal positions in the district, Lewis said, and he selected Green among the three interviewed candidates for the Northside vacancy.

“Ms. Green has been a successful high school teacher with experience teaching various English and literature courses at all levels to include Advanced Placement and dual enrollment,” Lewis said. “Her teaching effectiveness led to her classroom being identified as a model classroom for other teachers to observe.

“She further distinguished herself through her selection as the 2015 Jordan High School College and Career Academy Teacher of the Year and subsequently the MCSD Teacher of the Year. Leadership positions as department chair, academic coach, Teacher Quality Specialist and most recently, Personalized Learning Specialist have all prepared her very well for this new administrative role.”