Ridgeview Middle School Names New Principal

parents have learned that Monifa McKnight will soon take over as the new school principal. 

McKnight is currently the assistant principal at Tilden Middle School in Rockville. She will start at Ridgeview on July 1, according to a letter sent to parents.

The Montgomery County Board of Education approved the appointment of McKnight at their meeting on Monday.

McKnight will take over from Nancy Schultz, a former school performance director for the district, who had been serving as acting principal since Principal went on leave in February.

Levine surprised the Ridgeview community when she announced her retirement earlier this spring. She officially retired on April 1. During the two month search for a replacement principal, Ridgeview parents had a chance to give input on desired traits in a new principal at a meeting hosted by Dr. LaVerne G. Kimball, the MCPS community superintendent for the Quince Orchard school cluster, and Elizabeth Strubel, the school performance director, in late March.

In a Tilden Middle School PTSA newsletter in Sept. 2010, McKnight,the newly appointed principal intern, summarized her background in a letter to parents. Originally from Orangeburg, South Carolina, McKnight earned a bachelor's degree in elementary education K-8 from South Carolina University and a master's degree in educational leadership from Bowie State University. She began her teaching career in Newport News, Va. and moved to Montgomery County Public Schools in 2001 to work as a middle school English and reading teacher, according to the letter.