WS Chronicle

SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE

Essie McKoy will be the principal/executive director of Philo-Hill Magnet School beginning in 2016-17, as the school becomes the second of the district’s Innovative Schools.

McKoy has been the principal of Petree Elementary School since 2012. The school was named a Signature School in 2015 by the Piedmont Triad Education Consortium for demonstrating achievement growth in its students. McKoy will be replacing Kenyatta Bennett, who is leaving at the end of the school year to move to Georgia with his family.

As an Innovative School, McKoy will have more freedom to design such aspects of the school as allotments and budgeting. The school has been designated a Priority School, and the school will use the transformation reform model.

McKoy has led Petree since 2012, and she was also the principal of Hall-Woodward from 2004 to 2012. She was an assistant principal at Mineral Springs and also taught at Hanes Middle and Petree when it was a middle school.

McKoy also has been an adjunct professor at ITT Technical Institute and N.C. A&T State University. She earned a bachelor’s degree in science from Winston-Salem State University, a master of arts degree in middle grades education from Appalachian State University, and a specialist in education degree and doctorate in education from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.