Albemarle County Public Schools (ACPS) announced several changes to its division leadership structure and personnel at the end of June as part of its “budget realignment and strategic reorganization” efforts. One of the more significant changes was to replace two executive director jobs—covering elementary and secondary education—with a single “Executive Director of PreK–12 Leadership and Instruction.”
The new position has been filled by a new face, Dr. Kecia Lipscomb, who served for the last four years in the Fredericksburg City Public Schools system as director of curriculum and instruction. Lipscomb said she feels like she “grew up in education” as she comes from a family of educators and attended schools where her dad was principal and mom was a teacher. After earning a college degree in business, she felt the pull of the educator life herself.
“I had an opportunity to continue studying leadership and attended graduate school at Virginia State University [earning a Master’s in Educational Leadership and Administration],” she said. “I just kind of fell in love with the way schools run, the organizational flow of those places. I knew I could always lead folks and work to support an organization and ensure that everyone had what they needed—that was kind of my niche.”
Lipscomb taught at both the elementary and high school levels before becoming an assistant principal in Charles City, Virginia. “Then I went to Chesterfield to be an assistant principal, and then back to Charles City when the superintendent offered me an opportunity to return and serve as principal of the elementary school,” she said. After that, she spent 11 years as principal of Arthur Ashe Jr. elementary school in Henrico County, while also completing her doctorate in educational leadership, before accepting the director position in Fredericksburg…