Parents Optimistic About New Hardy Principal

Parents of current and future Hardy Middle School students are hoping the newly select principal can anchor the middle school as an integral part of the Georgetown community, making it a natural stepping stone for feeder school students.

Patricia Pride was selected by a panel of parent and teachers and given the stamp of approval by Chancellor Kaya Henderson to take over the principal position at Hardy Middle School in Georgetown after Dr. Mary Stefanus unexpectedly resigned earlier this month. 

Pride was most recently the interim principal at Hardy feeder school, Stoddert Elementary in Glover Park.

David Fredrickson, Hardy PTO President, and a member of the principal selection panel said in Hardy's new principal, he wanted "someone who can appreciate what Hardy has and figure out how to push it further." 

Fredrickson told Patch that Pride came across as both dynamic and a good listener during her interview.

Former Hardy PTO President, now Vice President, Brian Cohen said his impression is that Pride was "popular" among parents at Stoddert and that many are "optimistic" about her staying nearby at Hardy.

"I'm personally very fond of her," said Cohen. "I'm pleased that we now the opportunity to work with her at Hardy."

Pride's support from feeder school parents and her selection to lead Hardy can be viewed as closely connected.

Hardy has typically not had nearly as many students attending from feeder schools as students who live out of boundary. Last school year 11 percent of Hardy's students lived in-boundary, according to data from DCPS. 

When then-Chancellor Michelle Rhee first replaced popular Principal Patrick Pope in 2010 with the principal of Hyde-Addison Elementary, Dana Nerenberg, many saw it as an effort by DCPS to court families from Georgetown, Burleith and other nearby neighborhoods.  

Nerenberg later went back to managing Hyde-Addison on its own, rather than running two schools. Her permanent replacement was Dr. Mary Stefanus, who came to DCPS from St. Louis. 

After her first year in DCPS, in a June 2012 interview, Stefanus told Patch that the transition to the bureaucracy of DCPS was at first, "an absolute shock."

"I think personally it was hard for me because just DCPS being a part of the government there’s a lot more bureaucracy," she said at the time. "I hadn’t made that mental shift. But now I have. And so you just push through and you do what you need to do."

She told Patch that she felt she had helped the school get through the transition of its "rocky period" that came from having so many different school leaders in such a short time. She was confident in the school's quality and what it could offer to local students.

He said he wants Hardy to be a "welcome and valued member of the entire Georgetown and DCPS community."