CFISD Announces Principals for New Elementary Schools

After approving personnel transactions at its January 20 meeting, the Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District Board of Trustees recognized current Holbrook Elementary principal Deborah Harbin and current Jowell Elementary principal Patty Mooney as the principals to open Dr. Peggy Bell Duryea Elementary and Gwen Wayman Keith Elementary, respectively. Both schools are scheduled to open in August with the start of the 2004-2005 school year.

Retiring CFISD Superintendent Rick Berry, who attended the meeting for this special announcement, introduced Harbin and Mooney as the first principals for the district’s 39th and 40th elementary schools.

Harbin earned a Bachelor of Science in Elementary education from Abilene Christian University in 1977 and a Master of Education in Administration from Prairie View A&M University in 1994. She began her career in 1980 as a kindergarten teacher in Beaumont, Texas, before arriving in Cypress-Fairbanks ISD ten years later as a transition teacher at Emmott Elementary, where she taught with the K-1 team for two years.

In 1992, Harbin was promoted to assistant principal at Emmott and served in that role for six years before assuming her current position as principal for Holbrook Elementary.

Mooney earned a Bachelor of Science in Education from the State University of New York College at Fredonia in 1982 and her Master of Education in Administration and Supervision from the University of Houston in 1992. Having collected 20 of her 22 years of experience in education working for CFISD, Mooney began her career in CFISD as a first-grade teacher at Bane Elementary in 1982.

Two years later, Mooney transferred to Francone Elementary where she taught with the K-1 team until 1991 when she was promoted to assistant principal and helped open Metcalf Elementary. In 1996, she transferred to Ault Elementary as assistant principal and left CFISD two years later to serve as principal at Hunters Creek Elementary in Spring Branch ISD. In 2000, she returned to Cypress-Fairbanks ISD in her current role as principal of Jowell Elementary.

Both principals will be relieved of their current duties and will report to the district’s administration building in March to begin preliminary work for the opening of Duryea and Keith elementary schools and to begin hiring staff for those campuses.

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