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TAMPA - Both principals who opened Hillsborough's two new kindergarten-through-eighth-grade schools in mostly black neighborhoods this fall have been transferred, following months of problems ranging from late buses to a lack of equipment.
On Tuesday, the School Board quietly transferred Booker T. Washington K-8 principal Rowena Johnson and named her a principal on special assignment in the district's early learning program.
Johnson's transfer comes one month after the board transferred Jeff Millman, principal of Clemmie Ross James K-8, who requested the job change for personal and professional reasons.
Washington and James reopened this year to central Tampa children who had been bused for desegregation. Both schools were originally scheduled to become elementary schools but were shifted to include middle school children because of a lack of space in existing middle schools in the county's urban core.
Enrollment at both schools surpassed expectations and led to chaos in the beginning of the school year.
Unlike most administrative appointments, which are singled out on board agendas, Johnson's appointment was not. Typically when administrators are transferred or promoted they are recognized publicly and asked to stand with their family members to applause.
Johnson's transfer only appeared on documents given to board members instead of in public materials.
District spokesman Mark Hart, who learned of the transfer Wednesday, said he was unsure why.
"Perhaps we're overly sensitive" to the media attention about the school, he said.
"The impression is she was remiss in her duties," Hart said. "That's not the case. The challenges of a K-8 school are unique. That's a difficult assignment."
School Board member Doris Ross Reddick, whose late mother is the namesake for James, has been publicly critical of the various problems at Washington and James.
After she voiced her concerns, administrators began scrambling to improve conditions such as overflowing toilets and libraries without books at the schools.
Replacing Johnson was Maria Tudela, principal at youth services, effective Wednesday.
The district is planning to build a middle school in Ybor City that could ease the crowding problem at urban middle schools.