Ms. Stacy Kirkpatrick, director of student services of Rachel Carson Middle School, will not be coming back after this school year. She is going to be the new principal at Chesterbrook Elementary School located in McLean, Virginia.

“I’m gonna miss middle school — I like you guys,” she said.

Before becoming the director of student services, Mrs. Kirkpatrick was a fourth and fifth grade teacher, as well as a middle school science teacher and our former assistant principal. She’s been at Carson for eight whole years! Among her other duties as director of student services, she creates Carson’s complicated class schedule each year.

“Ms. Kirkpatrick is going to be missed,” said Ms. Elaine Clubb. “It was such an honor to be able to work with her.”

Although she is sad about leaving the school, she’s excited to start with something new and fresh.

“Building new relationships with teachers and students is definitely what I’m looking forward to,” said Ms. Kirkpatrick. As well as getting to know each student and teacher at Chesterbrook Elementary, she is also excited to be working as a principal. “It’s a new experience and I’m very excited about it.”

The staff at Rachel Carson are also going to miss Ms. Kirkpatrick very much, as they appreciated her acceptance and hard work here at Carson.

At a staff meeting in her honor on June 11, Ms. Joni Fraundorfer hugged her and said, “Don’t go!”

They are happy for her, though.

“I think it’s awesome that she is leaving,” said Mr. Gordon Stokes, the principal of Rachel Carson Middle School. “I say that because she is incredibly deserving of the chance to become a principal, as it takes a lot of work to develop the skills. I’m very happy and proud of her for her hard work. However, the other side of that is, we are gonna lose a very good part of our staff, and that part is difficult because she is such a good part of our building,”