John LeGrand is leaving Butler High School in Matthews after five years as principal, moving into a job overseeing 29 schools in center city Charlotte.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Superintendent Earnest Winston announced LeGrand's promotion at a special school board meeting Friday.
In October 2018, LeGrand earned the unwanted distinction of being the only CMS principal to face a fatal shooting at his school, when one student shot another outside the school cafeteria. LeGrand responded with a year-long focus on making the school a kinder and safer place.
LeGrand has worked for CMS since 2003, including a four-year stint as principal of Bain Elementary.
Winston also named Nancy Brightwell, a longtime CMS administrator, to a post similar to LeGrand's but overseeing a different group of center city schools. Brightwell and LeGrand will both be executive directors in the district's two center city "learning communities."
Also Friday, the school board approved Monica Palmer as principal of Albemarle Road Elementary. Palmer is assistant principal at Metro School in Charlotte, and was assistant principal at Union County's Porter Ridge Middle School before that.
