In new roles for the coming school year are, from left, Christy Eubanks, principal of Northwest Elementary School; Dr. Heather Walston, principal of Contentnea-Savannah K-8 School; Gil Repress, the district’s High School Graduation Success Officer; and Rhonda Greene, principal of North Lenoir High School.

Three LCPS schools will open the 2022-2023 academic year under new leadership after the Lenoir County Board of Education approved principal and assistant principal assignments recommended by Superintendent Brent Williams on Monday night.

The changes, effectively immediately, send Contentnea-Savannah K-8 School principal Rhonda Greene to North Lenoir High School, Northwest Elementary School principal Dr. Heather Walston to Contentnea-Savannah K-8 and Contentnea-Savannah assistant principal Christy Eubanks to Northwest Elementary as principal.

The top job at North Lenoir High opened up when Gil Respress, principal there for 10 years, accepted the district-level position of High School Graduation Success Officer, working to ensure LCPS’s graduation rate and dropout rate continue to move in the right direction.

In aggregate, the four administrators have logged nearly 90 years with Lenoir County Public Schools, all beginning as classroom teachers.

“Congratulations to all our administrators on their new assignments and we’re looking forward to even greater accomplishments from these outstanding educators,” Williams said.

Greene, a graduate of North Lenoir High, comes to the school as principal after serving in that role at Northwest for two years and at Contentnea-Savannah for six years. Previously, she was an assistant principal at EB Frink Middle School and taught for 22 years at Northwest. She was named the district’s Principal of the Year in 2016. She earned her bachelor and master’s degrees from East Carolina University.

Dr. Walston moves to Contentnea-Savannah after taking over from Greene at Northwest in 2016. She taught history at South Lenoir High School, her alma mater, for eight years before becoming assistant principal at EB Frink in 2014. She holds bachelor, master’s and doctorate degrees from East Carolina University. She was the district’s Principal of the Year in 2021.

Eubanks started with LCPS in 1999 as a teacher at Banks Elementary School. She became a curriculum specialist with the district in 2016 and served as assistant principal at Contentnea-Savannah this past school year. She has organized and led the district’s Reader to Achieve summer program that past two years. Eubanks holds an associate degree from Lenoir Community College, a bachelor degree from East Carolina University and a master’s degree from Gardner-Webb University.

Respess moves into his district-level role after 10 years as principal of North Lenoir. He joined LCPS in 2002 as a math teacher at the former Kennedy Home school and also taught at South Lenoir High before taking an assistant principal position at Greene Central High School. He holds a bachelor degree and master’s degree from East Carolina University. 

The school board on Monday also approved the appointments of four assistant principals:

• Daniel Chabot, formerly an assistant principal at Southern Wayne High School, as assistant principal at North Lenoir High

• Candace Tilghman-Rouse, formerly a teacher at Northeast Elementary School, as assistant principal at Rochelle Middle School

• Nichole Hathaway, formerly a teacher at Contentnea-Savannah, as assistant principal there. 

• Suzanna Moye, formerly digital learning specialist at South Lenoir High, as an assistant principal there.