{"id":88641,"date":"2026-04-13T14:45:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T18:45:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/?p=88641"},"modified":"2026-04-13T14:45:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T18:45:12","slug":"smcps-principal-finalist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/smcps-principal-finalist\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Mary\u2019s County Principal Named Finalist for National Principal of the Year"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">MEDIA CONTACT:<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Raven Hill, 410-767-0486<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/><\/span><a href=\"mailto:raven.hill@maryland.gov\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">raven.hill@maryland.gov<\/span><\/a> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/><br \/><\/span><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><b>St. Mary\u2019s County Principal Named Finalist for National Principal of the Year<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><b><br \/><\/b><b>BALTIMORE (April 13, 2026)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2013 Dr. Deborah Dennie, principal of Leonardtown Middle School in St. Mary\u2019s County Public Schools, is a finalist for the National Principal of the Year Award from the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One of three middle school finalists nationwide, Dr. Dennie has led Leonardtown for 10 years. The national award honors <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">outstanding contributions to student success, school improvement, and educational leadership.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cDr. Dennie is an outstanding school leader who cares deeply for her students, educators, and school community,\u201d said <\/span><b>Dr. Carey Wright, State Superintendent of Schools<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. \u201cHer dedication and vision are a powerful example of what strong, student\u2011centered leadership can achieve.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cPrincipal Dennie represents the level of excellence we strive for in school leadership across our state,\u201d said <\/span><b>Dr. Joshua L. Michael, State Board of Education President<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. \u201cHer commitment to elevating teaching and learning, and dedication to mentoring and empowering educators, has strengthened her entire school community.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Awards for middle and high school National Principal and Assistant Principal of the Year will be announced Friday, April 17 at the NASSP National Education Leadership Awards Gala in Washington, D.C.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/><br \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">###<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">MEDIA CONTACT:<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Raven Hill, 410-767-0486<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><\/span><a href=\"mailto:raven.hill@maryland.gov\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">raven.hill@maryland.gov<\/span><\/a> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><\/span><br \/>\n<b>St. Mary\u2019s County Principal <a href=\"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/smcps-principal-finalist\/\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&#8230;Learn more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-88641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-newsreleases"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/281"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88641"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88641\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88644,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88641\/revisions\/88644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}