Lapeer Community Schools will welcome a pair of new members to its administrative team for the 2016-17 school year. Robert Downey, a former elementary principal in Dryden Community Schools, has been named principal of Turrill Elementary. Downey takes over for longtime Turrill principal Ken Janczarek, who has been named the District’s new

Director of Innovation. The former Director of Innovation, Matt Olson, was recently named the Superintendent of Benzie Central Schools (MI).

Downey, an Attica resident, has served as elementary principal, K-12 assistant principal and spent three years as a K-6 technology teacher in Dryden. Taken together, he has served as a public educator for 21 years.

Downey has an MA in the Art of Teaching from Marygrove College as well as an Education Specialist degree from the University of Michigan conferred in 2014. He is a Lapeer East High School alumnus.

Katie Jordan, a 14-year classroom teacher from Clarkston Community Schools, has been named the principal of Murphy Elementary. Jordan takes over for Jeff Stanton, who will become the principal of the District’s Rolland-Warner 6-7 Campus.

Jordan, a Goodrich resident, has been a classroom teacher in Clarkston for 14 years. She earned an undergraduate degree in Elementary Education from the University of Michigan – Flint and an MA in K-12 Administration from Central Michigan University. In 2011, she earned her Education Specialist degree from Oakland University.

Both new principals will start July 1, 2016.

For more information, please contact Jared Field at jfield@lapeerschools.org.