School Board Approves Hiring New Principal

FARMINGTON — Shannon Cantrell, instructional facilitator and interventionist at Folsom Elementary School, will be the new Folsom principal for the 2015-16 school year.

Cantrell, who has been with Farmington School District for 14 years and has a total of 15 years of education experience, will replace Stephanie Pinkerton, who recently was approved as an assistant superintendent for Farmington. Cantrell was a classroom teacher before moving into her current position.

Farmington School Board approved Cantrell as the new principal in a special meeting held May 27.

Bryan Law, superintendent of schools, said Farmington received 35 applications for the position and a committee interviewed five strong candidates.

The advertisement for the pos it ion said prefer red experience was someone with principal experience but after meeting with Cantrell, the committee felt comfortable with Cantrell as principal at the school, Law said.

“They felt very comfortable with the fact that Mrs. Cantrell was very astute about what it takes to move into a principal’s role,” Law said.

Cantrell has been involved in testing and teacher evaluations at Folsom and those are two primary responsibilities for a school principal, Law said.

“She’s done a lot of things in that building that an assistant principal would do and that has helped her prepare for this,” Law said. “All in all, we had a person in-house who impressed our committee and seemed ready to move into that role.”

Cantrell