Earlier tonight, the Board of Trustees approved several important administrative changes and Superintendent Stephen Harrell announced an administrative reorganization, setting the tone for the District’s next generation of leaders. Trustees filled vacancies for several positions, including superintendent of schools, Deer Park High School-Wolters Campus principal, a junior high principal, an elementary assistant principal, director of health services, and the new DPHS head girls basketball coach.
The Board named current Assistant Superintendent for Instruction Tiffany Regan as the District’s 11th superintendent. Regan was named the lone finalist for the position on March 14.
A DPHS graduate, Regan began her career in 1995 as a long-term substitute and teacher at Deer Park Elementary. Three years later, she accepted a position as a sixth-grade language arts teacher and coach at Fairmont Junior High. A year later, she moved to Deer Park Junior High, and she was named the school’s assistant principal in 2003 and its principal in 2007. In 2021, she became the District’s assistant superintendent for human resources, and last year, she was named assistant superintendent for instruction.
Regan fills a vacancy left by the impending retirement of current Superintendent Stephen Harrell.
Leslie Cruz was named principal of Wolters Campus. For the first 10 years of her career, Cruz worked as a special education teacher, regular education co-teacher, and girls soccer coach. In 2014, she was named assistant principal at Wolters Campus. After serving as the school’s assistant principal for 10 years, she was named its interim principal prior to the current school year.
Cruz fills a vacancy left by John Wegman, who accepted a position as principal at DPHS-North Campus.
Trustees named Jessica Reyna principal of Deepwater Junior High. Reyna began her career in 2007 in Goose Creek Consolidated ISD, where she worked as a teacher for seven years. She joined DPISD as a Deepwater Junior High teacher, a position she held until being named coordinator of English/language arts in 2018. In 2023, Reyna was named to her current position of assistant principal for instruction and testing at DPHS-North Campus.
Reyna fills a vacancy left by Rosa Ramos, who recently accepted a position in the Department of Instruction as a bilingual coordinator.
Dario Luna was named assistant principal at Deepwater Elementary. After working two years as a dual language aide, Luna began his teaching career in 2016 as a second-grade dual language teacher at San Jacinto Elementary, a position he held for five years. In 2021, Luna was named to his current job as a district bilingual instructional coach.
Luna fills a vacancy created by an administrative reorganization. He replaces current DWE assistant principal Lindsay Boyle, who accepted a position as assistant principal at Carpenter Elementary. Boyle replaces Julie Bullock, who is the new assistant principal at the Early Childhood Center. Bullock fills a vacancy left by Laura Anderson, who fills an assistant principal vacancy at Bonnette Junior High left by the December resignation of Carrie Barras.
Trustees named Courtney Erdmann the district’s director of health services. Erdman worked as an operating room nurse and as a school nurse in LaPorte ISD before joining DPISD in 2016 as the school nurse for DPHS-North Campus, Wolters Campus, and the Disciplinary Alternative Education Program. She currently remains in that position and has 23 years of experience as a registered nurse.
Erdmann fills a vacancy created by the impending retirement of longtime nurse and health services director Cheryl Westmoreland.
The School Board also named Kelly Garrett as DPHS Girls Basketball Head Coach. She started her coaching career in 2000, working for 21 years as a girls athletics assistant coach and head coach in Edinburg Consolidated ISD and Harlingen Consolidated ISD. In 2021, she joined DPISD as an assistant coach. A year later, she became girls basketball junior varsity head coach, her current position. Garrett is also a DPHS graduate who played on the only Deer Park girls team to compete in the state tournament.
Garrett fills a vacancy left by the resignation of current head coach Warren Brooks.
These changes officially take effect on July 1.