Our reporter was at a lively community meet-and-greet.
By Ed James III
Original Air Date: May 8, 2026
Host: It’s a pivotal transition not just for Booker High School but for the Newtown community. Following the retirement announcement of long-time Principal Dr. Rachel Shelley, the search for her successor is narrowing down to two distinct paths. Ed James III was at a community meet-and-greet Thursday afternoon to get to know the next leader for Booker Nation.
Ed James III: The main theater at Booker High was a study in contrasts on Thursday. In the back, the Tornadoes football team provided a raucous, high-energy soundtrack for Jamal Crook, one of two candidates. Watching on, in the front, a row of community pillars representing the bedrock of the Booker Nation.
Among them were Fredd Atkins, the first Black Mayor of Sarasota; Helen James, President of the Suncoast Women of Action; Trevor Harvey, President of the NAACP; and Hugh Yancy, a legend of the 1967 Booker National Championship basketball team.
Before the questions began, the roadmap for how the community would weigh in on this high-stakes decision was laid-out.
Staff member: It will be up to you. We will have microphones set up where you will have a staff member hand you the microphone for your question, and then obviously the candidates will have microphones so everybody can hear the answer. That’s a time for you to ask the questions that are important to you. Nothing scripted. What is your heart telling you you need to know more about? On your way out, you’re actually going to get a one-pager that has the candidates’ bios and also a QR code. In that QR code, there are eight open-ended questions where you can give us your feedback.
EJ: The two men vying for the role offer a clear choice between internal continuity and external innovation.
Greg Rumph is the “insider.” A Ringling College graduate and professional illustrator, Rumph has been an Assistant Principal at Booker since 2009. He is a veteran of the Purple and Gold and a product of Sarasota County Schools. During the forum, Fredd Atkins pressed Rumph on his specific classroom and teaching models to ensure academic success for all students.
Greg Rumph via bookervpa.com
Greg Rumph: It takes a lot of work, a lot of time, a lot of effort and a lot of planning just to get them caught up to where they should be before we even take them to the next level to push that learning to extend their learning. What my plan is to accelerate that process in our students’ learning is we’re going to focus on looking at student work. We already give our students a lot of what we call “tier 2 support.” We may do something like put another teacher in there, like a co-teaching model. We might put a paraprofessional in the room to give added support. But what I am aiming to do, aside from those efforts on the frontend is we’re looking at the instruction of what we call pedagogy—the delivery, the teaching of the education and the instructional activities. It’s taking a look with a microscope of, “What our students are doing as a result of our teaching—as a result of our instruction—to the varied problems?” Say, for example, if I’m asking a student how to find x on problem number one, I want to know, “Why is that student getting to y instead of x?” so that we can pinpoint exactly what we need to do to help our students master the skill.
EJ: On the other side is Jamal Crook, currently an Assistant Principal in Hillsborough County with a background leading Sligh Middle School—a school whose demographics closely mirror Booker High’s. Crook leaned into his reputation as a young, innovative leader, specifically addressing the need to include student voices in the school’s technological evolution.
Jamal Crook via LinkedIn
Jamal Crook: Social media has taken the world by storm, if you will. But I’m going to go back to the principle that I set out when I began to interview for this job: Are the students interested in it, and is that a viable lead right now? If they are, then we’ll find a way to make sure that they have those programs available to them with community partnerships and all of the other things. I fundamentally believe those are some skills that should be embedded within schools.
EJ: That student-first energy clearly resonated with the athletic department. Booker High School Football Coach Carlos Woods explained why he and his players are throwing their support behind Crook.
Carlos Woods: Just from what he explained, he was talking about how he wants to unify all the different compartments that are within the school—all the different departments—just getting everybody on the same page. Really valuing the teachers’ input, the students’ input. That’s more aligned with what Dr. Shelley was doing, and I think it’s going to be a continuation and he’s going to take it to the next level. Just being a young guy, he’s experienced being an assistant principal at the high school level. Now he’s in charge of a middle school that’s a very similar demographic to what we are in right now. I feel like, with his background of being a sports guy—he’s played sports collegiately—I feel like that’s going to be the best direction we want to go.
Booker High School
EJ: However, the crowd didn’t just focus on athletics and tech. A major point of concern was disciplinary equity. Audience members repeatedly asked how each candidate would address the equal application of disciplinary action—ensuring that athletes, ESE students and the general student body are all held to the same standard of fairness without bias.
The search committee, which includes retiring principal Dr. Rachel Shelley and Dr. Lashawn Frost, the former Booker Middle Principal and current Executive Director of Student Services, will now begin the process of reviewing the community feedback; and as the QR codes are scanned and the data is compiled, the voice of Booker Nation remains the final arbiter of this legacy.
Reporting for WSLR and following the pulse of Booker Nation, I’m Ed James III.
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