Room by room, Stoops said goodbye to Challenger's middle-school students Tuesday morning.Īt first, she seemed to struggle to get it out. 'I love that part of being a principal,' she said. She says her role as principal is quite simple: Do whatever is possible for teachers so they can do the most for kids in their classrooms. 'I attribute it to the teachers, totally,' she said. It's in the top 2 percent, overall, for all elementary and middle schools. The school is ranked second in the state for combination K-8 schools in terms of its students' scores on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. Under Stoops' leadership, Challenger has always been an A school. 'She was involved in every aspect in the design and construction of that school.' 'Her attention to detail is phenomenal,' Duval said. She made sure the science rooms were equipped to be labs. She was adamant about not having rows of desks, opting instead for tables where students could learn together and work in teams. But I really felt like I took the same pains picking out stuff here that I would do for myself.' 'I had never furnished a 300,000-square-foot home.

'I had to order every piece of furniture that's in here,' she said. In 2005, Stoops left to lead the soon-to-be-opened Challenger, the district's first K-8 school.įor six months, she worked with architects and facilities management on the school. 'Coming from where we were, that was monumental progress,' she said. She traveled the world - Europe, Asia - on buying trips for the Christmas House and was deeply involved in designing the holiday pieces, decorating the rooms and designing the trees.Īnd she helped bring Brooksville up to an A grade. Full time turned into overtime, she joked, and all of a sudden 10 years had passed. She started working part time at the now-shuttered Rogers Christmas House Village. She taught there for eight years before leaving the field to focus on raising her children. 'The kids had a good time in her classroom, but also learned.' Just phenomenal,' said Springstead High School principal Susan Duval, who started teaching with her in 1969. Stoops, 66, started teaching in Hernando County in 1968 at what was then Brooksville Junior High School.įresh out of the University of Florida, she taught seventh-grade science.

'You'll never not be here,' social studies teacher Chris King told Stoops on Tuesday as she said goodbye to a group of students. She even chose the carpeting and furniture. Stoops has put her stamp on everything at Challenger, from the focus on science and math, to the electives in forensics and marine biology, to the teachers. But all gators aside, few administrators with the Hernando school district have left such an indelible mark on a single school.

Challenger k8