Edgewood school gets new principal

Lawrence O. Rudolph, 37, has been tapped to take over in June at Edgewood Middle, which is in its fifth year of not meeting federal exam benchmarks and has had to submit plans to the state for fixing the problem.

“The first thing you have to do is build a certain culture,” Rudolph said Tuesday after the Harford County Board of Education approved his appointment Monday night. “I’ll sit down with our staff and start putting together our goals and objectives to shoot for.”

Rudolph, who has served as an assistant principal or interim principal at four schools in and around Detroit, has overseen or begun turnarounds at two schools that were facing similar troubles with the federal No Child Left Behind Act, he said.

“I guess I’ve been a cleanup man around Detroit, and that’s a tough city to be the cleanup man,” Rudolph said.

“His background shows he’s been involved in both urban and suburban schools,” said schools spokesman Don Morrison. “Edgewood Middle fits the model of both of these: It has the demographics and issues of an urban school, but has more suburban influences as well.”

Under federal guidelines for struggling schools, Edgewood Middle officials had the choice of making the school a charter school; soliciting a private management company; hiring a “distinguished” principal with a track record of fixing troubled schools; or replacing and reorganizing the entire staff, said Superintendent Jacqueline Haas.

The “alternative governance” board tasked with choosing an option wanted a new principal, and the search went nationwide because there weren’t enough candidates available in Maryland, she said.

“All the research clearly shows that the strength of a principal’s leadership will be a critical factor,” said David Volrath, executive director for secondary education.

msantoni@baltimoreexaminer.com