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Principal on board, next comes school

Carrollwood Day brings in an experienced school administrator to shape its planned high school.

By JEFFREY S. SOLOCHEK
Published May 1, 2005

CARROLLWOOD - Carrollwood Day School has hired a principal to begin preparing its foray into high school.

Tom Stoup, 54, has been lead adviser at the Palmer Trinity School in Miami for the past four years. He worked at Hyde School, a well-known private boarding school in Connecticut, for more than a decade.

"I feel real fortunate to be able to come in a year in advance and do a lot of the behind the scenes work to get the program molded," Stoup said.

The high school opens in 2006, when Carrollwood Day moves to the old Idlewild Baptist Church campus on Bearss Avenue. It will begin with about 200 ninth- and 10th-graders.

Head of school Mary Kanter said Stoup stood out in the candidate pool because of his strong understanding of independent schools. He also has a background in character education, which Carrollwood Day emphasizes.

"He's on the same wavelength as us, philosophically," Kanter said.

Carrollwood Day will serve as a prototype high school for character education researchers Thomas Lickona and Matt Davidson. It will implement the Smart and Good High Schools program the researchers have determined help people to lead productive lives.

The school also recently earned its accreditation as a pre-International Baccalaureate school. Kanter says the high school eventually will try to win similar credentials for the academically challenging program.

Carrollwood Day School opened in 1981 and has been expanding since. It purchased the Idlewild Baptist Church site for $10.9-million, and now is in the middle of a capital campaign. It has raised about $1.2-million of its $3-million goal.

- Jeffrey S. Solochek can be reached at 813 269-5304 or solochek@sptimes.com

[Last modified April 30, 2005, 04:00:06]