Dr. Monique Gardner-Witherspoon

The North Learning Community for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools has a new area superintendent, and she’ll be in Davidson next week.

Staff at the learning community said Dr. Monique Gardner-Witherspoon is “still transitioning” to her new job, but will be at Davidson Town Hall Thursday, Oct. 23, to answer parent questions and talk technology.  This will be the same night as a follow-up planning session related to the Davidson IB Middle School.

The North Learning Community includes 18 public schools in Davidson, Cornelius and Huntersville, and was created in 2007 to encourage decentralization.  The first north superintendent was Hugh Hattabaugh, who was recently named chief operating officer for the entire Mecklenburg public school system.

Here’s an excerpt from the CMS press release about the new appointment:

Gardner-Witherspoon began her career with CMS in 1997 as a guidance counselor and was later named assistant principal at Olde Providence and Albemarle Road elementary schools. She was also the principal of McAlpine Elementary School. Before becoming executive director for the East Learning Community, Gardner-Witherspoon was executive director of staffing and licensure for CMS.

“Our office is open and accessible to parents, students and the public,” said Gardner-Witherspoon. “I am excited to develop my relationship with the community and leaders in Davidson, Cornelius, Huntersville and North Charlotte.”

Gardner-Witherspoon has a bachelor’s degree in business administration with a concentration in accounting from Seton Hall University (N.J.), a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s degree in education from South Carolina State University, and an education specialist degree in education leadership from Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C. She recently earned her doctorate in educational leadership from Gardner-Webb University in Boiling Springs.

Her husband, Dr. Craig Witherspoon, is superintendent of Edgecombe County Public Schools. They have one son, who is in the third grade at Polo Ridge Elementary School.

CMS meetings on IB, technology

Dr. Gardner-Witherspoon will be making at least two local appearances in the coming weeks.

• Thursday, Oct. 23, she will be at Davidson Town Hall to talk about Davidson Schools and introduce some of the new technology the district offers for measuring student achievement.  Mayor John Woods will host the meeting, which will start at 7 p.m. in the board room of Davidson Town Hall, 216 South Main Street. CMS has recently unveiled its new “Data Dashboard” which gives public access to district data, from End-of-Grade scores to bus punctuality, and also allows for comparisons with other schools and year-by-year trends. Data Dashboard was developed by the district’s Office of Accountability to make performance information more available to the public.
• Monday, Nov. 17, Dr. Gardner-Witherspoon will attend the Book Fair Family Night at Bailey Middle School, which will feature pizza and drinks from 5:30 – 7 p.m.

Note that the night of the Davidson Town Hall meeting is the same night as a planned follow-up planning meeting for Davidson International Baccalareate Middle School.  The charette will be held at Davidson United Methodist Church (not at town hall, due to the CMS meeting described above), starting at 7 p.m., to review the proposed Davidson IB School renovation/community recreation center project.  For more on this project, see our Sept. 26 report, “Workshop reviews IB school plans.”