Cheltenham School District recently announced that Stephanie Junod (formerly Andrewlevich) has been appointed principal at Cheltenham Elementary.
Junod was featured by The Philadelphia Inquirer in February 2016 in an article titled “Teaching hope“. The story discusses the challenges she and her students face at the K-8 Mitchell School in the Kingsessing section of Philadelphia, where she had served as principal since 2015.
Excerpts from the article:
Circumstances, she knows well, often dictate student outcomes. Andrewlevich’s own birth parents gave her up for adoption, a decision that transformed her life.
“If my parents hadn’t given me up, I would have been a high-needs kid in a high-needs school,” she said.
One day early in her tenure, Andrewlevich ended a meeting because fleas were biting her legs. The students were used to chaos, fights, suspensions.
“Ms. A wasn’t playing,” Jeff Harvey, Mitchell’s custodian, said appreciatively of the 41-year-old, who favors hoop earrings and heels. “She got it done. She said she wanted the smell out of the building, and she wanted the kids to act right.”
In November 2016, Junod was featured by ABC News in an article titled “Principal Running Marathon to Buy New Computers for Every Classroom”. From the article:
Principal Stephanie Andrewlevich will run the Philadelphia marathon in an attempt to raise $94,000 on GoFundMe to cover the cost to buy 240 Chromebooks plus Tech Tubs for the kids of S. Weir Mitchell Elementary School in Southwest Philadelphia. She said the students have motivated her to race to the finish.
“They are my inspiration for me and my teachers,” Andrewlevich told ABC News. “The only reason we are all there is for them because they are so bright and creative and they have so much untapped potential. They just need the same resources as other children.”
During her tenure, she took Mitchell through turnaround, the pandemic and closing due to environmental hazards and relocation.
With 24 years of experience as an administrator and teacher in the School District of Philadelphia, Junod’s first day on the job is Monday, August 14. She replaces Nicolas Perez who had served as principal since 2014.
“I am truly honored to join the Cheltenham School District in service to our most valued resource … our children,” said Junod, who is passionate about the utilization of innovative data-driven strategies to produce positive academic and behavioral outcomes. “In the words of Nelson Mandela, ‘Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.’ Let’s go, dynamic Cheltenham Elementary Dolphins!”
Among other accomplishments at Mitchell, she defined and enforced student academic achievement standards and behavioral expectations, resulting in Mitchell’s removal from state and city intervention list within two years of five-year mandate; facilitated school branding initiatives, deemed a model by network, showcased in national and local media and utilized for collegial professional development within the district; cultivated positive relationships between school and families, resulting in 91 percent positive feedback on surveys completed by 75.8 percent of parents; and integrated schoolwide inclusive positive behavioral supports, which resulted in a decline in suspensions and increase in attendance, with lowest truancy rate in the network.
Prior to being named principal at Mitchell, Junod served the Philadelphia School District as a professional development specialist (2014-15); school-based climate and instructional teacher leader (2011-14); school-based instructional leader (2008-11); school-based climate teacher leader and dean of students (2001-08); and English and social studies teacher (1998-2001).
Junod has been recognized as a Neubauer Senior Fellow by the Philadelphia Academy of School Leaders (2019); Centennial Award Honoree by the Union League of Philadelphia (2018); and Collegial Principal Mentor by the School District of Philadelphia Turnaround Network (2016).
A resident of Haddon Township, New Jersey, Junod graduated from the College of New Jersey in 1997 with a bachelor of arts in elementary education and psychology and a certification in middle years English and elementary K-6. She earned her graduate degree from Gwynedd Mercy University in 2001 in education administration and earned an educational administration with principal certificate.
For the District’s official announcement, you can click here.
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Screengrab courtesy of ABC News