Meet 2020’s WCPSS Principal of the Year: She leads one of Raleigh’s oldest schools
Elena Ashburn is the Wake County school system’s 2020-21 Principal of the Year, and Monica Sawyer is the Assistant Principal of the Year.
Normally the winners are announced at a ceremony. But due to COVID-19 social distancing restrictions, both winners found out the news Friday when Wake County Superintendent Cathy Moore paid surprise visits to their high schools.
Ashburn, the principal of Broughton High School near downtown Raleigh since 2017, said she got suspicious when the front office got quiet and she was asked to walk outside the front entrance. She was met by a cheering crowd.
“It honestly feels unreal,” Ashburn said in an interview after the ceremony. “The talent in the Wake County school system is just exceptional and so to be named Principal of the Year to represent all of them is really an honor.”
Before being picked to lead Raleigh’s oldest public high school, Ashburn was principal of East Garner Middle School and an assistant principal at Fuquay-Varina High School.
She was a high school English teacher in Durham Public Schools before coming to Wake County as an administrative intern in 2011.
Ashburn told the crowd of well-wishers that their job as educators is even more important now. Due to the pandemic, Wake high school students haven’t had in-person classes since March 13 and will remain in online classes into January.
“In these really uncertain times, there is no job more important than to love and serve our children, and to ensure not only that we love and serve them but to ensure that they receive an excellent education,” Ashburn said on the front steps of Broughton
Ashburn will receive a prize package and compete in North Carolina’s Principal of the Year program.
Ashburn was also a finalist last year when Ruth Steidinger of Olive Chapel Elementary in Apex was named Wake’s principal of the year. Steidinger went on to become one of eight finalists for the statewide honor.
This year’s other Principal of the Year finalists were:
▪ Bob Grant of Washington Elementary in Raleigh
▪ Winston Pierce of Farmington Woods Elementary in Cary
▪ Keith Richardson of Knightdale High
▪ Mariah Walker of Hilburn Academy in Raleigh
Assistant Principal of the Year
Monica Sawyer has been an assistant principal at Enloe High School in Raleigh since 2015. Before that she was an administrative intern at Wakefield High School in Raleigh.
She also had taught business and marketing at Wakefield for nine years, including serving as Career and Technical Education department chairwoman.
“The diversity of Enloe affords me the opportunities to get to know students and families from all walks of life and to build a positive relationship with each one,” Sawyer said in her application. “The culture for which I have worked to develop at Enloe focuses on the whole child and providing them with agency while amplifying their voices in shifting the academic and social culture within the school.”
Sawyer will also receive a prize package. The other finalists for Assistant Principal of the Year were
▪ Leslie Blake of Millbrook Elementary in Raleigh
▪ Sarah Bratton of Forest Pines Drive Elementary in Raleigh
▪ Chasity Hawkins of Carpenter Elementary in Cary
▪ Rodney Smith of Green Hope High in Cary
This story was originally published October 23, 2020 at 2:04 PM with the headline "Meet 2020’s WCPSS Principal of the Year: She leads one of Raleigh’s oldest schools."
