Woodlawn Elementary principal selected to be new Rose Hill principal

FCPS Region 3 Superintendent Terry Dade and new Rose Hill principal Dawn Hendrick today. (FCPS Region 3 image)

Dawn Hendrick has been selected as the next principal of Rose Hill Elementary School, Fairfax County Public Schools announced Friday.

Hendrick is the current principal of Woodlawn Elementary School. She said in a letter to parents Friday that she will take over at Rose Hill on Sept. 17.

Hendrick, who has been at Woodlawn since 2011, oversaw a major turnaround in that school’s academic progress. In June she was named the FCPS Region 3 Principal of the Year.

“During her seven-year tenure, Woodlawn … has gone from the second lowest performing Title 1 school in FCPS to one of the top performing,” FCPS said in a news release.

In her letter to parents, Hendrick praised her staff for the progress Woodlawn made during her tenure, including implementation of a new STEAM program, Project Based Learning and a small group instructional model in reading and math.

“Before I go I want to highlight the great success our staff has achieved over my time at Woodlawn,” Hendrick said in the letter. “We moved from “not credited” status to “accredited in warning” status to “fully-accredited” status by the State of Virginia. Today we outperform many FCPS elementary schools.”

Hendrick will take over for Elizabeth Obester, who left Rose Hill to become an assistant principal at Mountain View High School.

James Meier, a longtime FCPS administrator who was the principal of Waynewood Elementary for many years, has served as Rose Hill’s interim principal.