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A few of the city’s best-known schools have new principals this year. 

This week, an email announced to parents at Bronx High School of Science that Jean Donahue, assistant principal for biology and physical sciences, isl taking over as the school’s interim acting principal. An alumna of the school, parent of a recent graduate, and former teacher at Bronx Science, Donahue knows the school well. She has a PhD and did cancer reasearch before she came to Bronx Science, where she lead the 3-year-research program. According to the Alumni Association’s facebook page, she has strong relationships with many faculty and with the Alumni Association. She will be taking over after former principal Valerie Reidy retired this summer after over a decade as the principal of Bronx Science. She stepped down amidst a high-profile investigation about incidents of hazing on the boy’s track team and after years of tension between teachers and administrators.

Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts also has a new principal this fall. This summer long-time principal Kim Bruno announced that she was leaving LaGuardia for a job as the principal of the Ramon C. Cortines School of Visual and Performing Arts in Los Angeles, California. Lisa Mars, former Assistant Principal of Language, Art and Music at Townsend Harris High School will take over as interim acting principal in her place. Parents at LaGuardia told Insideschools that they are hopeful that Mars will be a good leader for the school. However, according to members of the school’s Drama Parent Association, the transition is off to a difficult start since Mars still has not appointed a new assistant principal for the school’s Drama and Tech Studios, making them the only arts studios in the school without an AP.

At Brooklyn Latin founding principal Jason Griffiths announced this summer that he is leaving the school to lead Harlem Village Academy Charter School. Gina Mautschke, who has been with the school since its founding in 2006, is taking over as principal this fall. Mautschke began by teaching math at Brooklyn Latin until she was promoted to Assistant Head of Master of Operations in 2011, according to The Greenpoint Gazette. While Griffiths got high marks from teachers at Brooklyn Latin, according to the school’s Learning Environment Survey, he chose to leave after seven years, reportedly because of his frustration with dealing the city bureaucracy.

High schools aren’t the only ones with new principals this fall. Some of the city’s noteworthy elementary schools are also undergoing leadership changes this fall. This fall, former principal of PS 212 Midtown West, Dean Ketchum, will be starting as the new principal at Hunter College Elementary School.  According to the Hunter College website, Ketchum served as principal of Midtown West for nine years, where he got excellent reviews from teachers. Still no word on who is taking Ketchum’s place at Midtown West.