Three new principals, each with more than 20 years’ experience in education, will lead schools in the Mount Vernon City School District this year. The principals were hired Wednesday, Sept. 1, by the school board. They are: Matthew Gonzales for Mount Vernon High School; Thrusha Henderson for the Pennington School; and Sharon Spencer for the Mount Vernon STEAM Academy.
The Mount Vernon City School District Board of Education adopted on Wednesday, September 1, a comprehensive Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policy. According to the policy, the school board “is committed to creating and maintaining a positive and inclusive learning environment where all students, including and especially those currently and historically marginalized, feel safe, included, welcomed, and accepted, and experience a sense of belonging and the potential for academic success.
Hometown hero Rai Benjamin, with gold and silver Olympic medals around his neck, returned to Mount Vernon Friday, September 10, 2021 where he was cheered by school children throughout the city, gratefully accepted a handful of proclamations, and received the Key to the City. Beginning shortly after noon, he was carried on a parade platform through the city in a motorcade, a fire engine and a police escort. With family members, supporters and city and school district leaders, the motorcade included members of the entourage in classic cars – a blue Oldsmobile Cutlass convertible, a red Chevrolet Bel Air, a pale yellow Thunderbird among them.
Across the Mount Vernon City School District, students reported for the first day of the 2021-22 school year today, with adjusted COVID regulations – requiring 3 feet of distance rather than 6, for instance – making it possible to hold in-person school for the entire enrollment of 7,500. Students were excited to fully engage in lessons as well as eat lunch with schoolmates and friends.
The Mount Vernon City School District kicked off the school year at its annual convocation on Wednesday, September 1, with inspirational messages for faculty, staff, administrators, and the community. The theme of this year’s event focused on Rebuilding, Refocusing and Reimagining Education.
Dr. Natasha Hunter - McGregor , Principal
Dr. Hunter-McGregor is one of three siblings born into a loving military family. She received her associate’s degree in Liberal Arts and her undergraduate degree from Howard University where she graduated from the School of Business with a major in Management. She continued her educational journey to later receive two masters and the degree of Doctor of Education from St. John Fisher College.
Dr. Hunter-McGregor’s educational career began in Harlem, New York at the age of 21 where she lived, worshipped and taught young people in the community. She worked as a teacher in many capacities, a social studies school based coordinator, teacher of students with disabilities, gifted and talented teacher, literacy coach, AIS provider, curriculum writer integrating the arts, as well as a staff developer for a collective 10 years.
Dr. Hunter-McGregor later became an assistant principal in the New York City school system where she served for 8 years prior to becoming principal in Mt. Vernon, New York. During her service in the Harlem community, Dr. Hunter-McGregor trained staff from partnering agencies such as City Year of New York, Harlem Children’s Zone, coordinated service activities, instituted new teacher orientation programs in her school and helped to improve academic performance and teacher effectiveness.
She was an active member of the NAACP, Urban League and is a proud member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated.
Dr. Hunter-McGregor currently worships in the Mt. Vernon community and continues to put all of her energy into providing a high quality education for the students in her care by working collaboratively with families, staff, district staff, clergy and all key stake holders. She understands the superintendent’s 20/20 Vision and her immediate focus is to ensure that Graham School is taken off of the focus list and re-establishes itself as an institution of learning, whereby all families would like to send their precious little ones.
Dr. Hunter-McGregor loves sports and arts, traveling and spending time with family and friends. She adores her three children and strives to live her life with purpose, which she credits to the support of her loving parents.
