The Goochland School Board has approved the appointment of Dr. Stephen Geyer as Director of Elementary Education and Title 1. The board made the decision at their closed session Tuesday evening. At the same meeting the board picked Tina McCay to be the new principal of Goochland Elementary School. Each appointment begins July 1.
Geyer leaves his position in Clarke County as principal of Berryville Primary and D.G. Cooley Principal. Geyer has a B.A. in English and Education from James Madison University and earned his M.Ed and Ed.D in administration and supervision from the University of Virginia. He has also served as adjunct faculty for the University of Virginia Educational Leadership program.
McCay has been employed by the Goochland County Public Schools since 1999 as a teacher at Goochland Elementary School, Interim Elementary and Title I Specialist, and Title I Parent Involvement and Elementary Specialist. She has served as Lead Teacher, Summer School Principal, and School-based Gifted Coordinator, and chair of the School Improvement Planning Team.
She was named Goochland County Teacher of the Year in 2004.
Geyer’s and McCay’s appointments come in the midst of finalizing the Goochland School Division’s budget, during which some have suggested leaving vacant the Director of Elementary Education post and transferring an assistant principal from GHS to the GES job. But Goochland Superintendent of Schools Linda Underwood said Friday that Geyer’s position is critical to the system.
Underwood said it was essential to have someone in Geyer’s position to work with principals and staff at the county’s three elementary schools to make sure that each schools’ programs are adequate. “Some one has got to be in that role,” she said. “Without it we could end up with uneven and inequitable math and literacy curricula.”