Parents and staff urge retention of interim principals at Bayard and Maurice Pritchard as WLC leads national search

Parents, staff and community members pressed the Christina School District board April 15 to reconsider principal selection at two schools — Bayard School and Maurice Pritchard Senior Academy — and to make the hiring process more transparent.

Bayard parents and staff: ask to retain interim principal Parents and staff from Bayard delivered multiple public comments asking the district and the Wilmington Learning Collaborative (WLC) to retain the school's interim principal, Dr. Ginyard, or at minimum to give parents a fuller role in the selection process. Speakers described multiple leadership changes, building moves and turnover over several years and said Bayard has begun to stabilize under the current interim leadership.

- Antoinette Curry (parent) said a petition gathered “278 or 287” signatures in favor of retaining the interim principal and asked where parents should submit the petition; the speaker said the signatures were gathered on short notice. - Tracy Lewis, math interventionist at Bayard, told the board, “We cannot afford to go backwards or restart our vision,” and said staff had been directed to pause planning for 2025–26 until the principal slot is…