New principals for RCHS, RCES

Just as the Rappahannock County School Board didn’t have to look far in appointing a new school superintendent, Shannon L. Grimsley, the school system’s former executive director of academic services, Grimsley similarly had an easy time choosing a new principal for Rappahannock County High School (RCHS).

Karen Ellis, who has principal of Rappahannock County Elementary School (RCES), has just been appointed principal of the high school,

effective immediately.

Former high school principal Mike Tupper, meanwhile, will become the school system’s executive director of Student Support Services, overseeing areas that include transportation, alternative education, attendance, truancy, and the ever-important crisis management planning.

Becoming principal of RCES is Ben Temple, who spent 16 years as an educator at the elementary and high school levels in Culpeper County, and most recently was as an assistant principal in Wythe County. A self-described “family man”, Temple’s wife teaches in Culpeper County, while all three of the couple’s sons attending Culpeper County High School.

The Rappahannock News will report on these significant faculty appointments and more in next week’s August 3rd issue, when we sit down with the newly appointed Grimsley to discuss her vision for the school system, as well the upcoming 201718 academic school year.