Nine North Carolina school leaders have been named regional finalists for the 2026 Wells Fargo North Carolina Principal of the Year award, state officials announced Thursday.
One of the finalists will be selected as the statewide winner May 15 at a ceremony in Cary.
The winner will serve as an ambassador for the state’s roughly 2,700 principals and will advise the State Board of Education for a two-year term. They will also join the board of directors of the North Carolina Public School Forum. In recent years, educators in this role have used the platform to lobby for increased school funding.
“These finalists are skilled professionals who help others succeed,” state Superintendent Maurice “Mo” Green said in a statement. “They create programs to meet the needs of students and their families, deliver professional development and support to teachers and other educators and establish community partnerships that bring real-world learning to students.”
The Principal of the Year program, created in 1984, is sponsored by Wells Fargo in partnership with the N.C. Department of Public Instruction.
This year’s finalists include a Dare County principal who improved post-pandemic academic growth, a Craven County early college leader whose school has maintained an A performance grade, and a Cumberland County administrator who helped raise her school’s performance from a C to a B while overhauling its discipline model.
The cohort also features a Charlotte principal who led a Title I school’s rise from a D to a B, an Ashe County high school leader whose targeted intervention pushed the graduation rate above 90 percent for the first time, and a Rutherford County principal who reduced disciplinary referrals and coordinated her campus’s use as a medical shelter after Hurricane Helene.
The finalists are:
Northeast: Kelly E. Flora, Nags Head Elementary School (Dare County Schools) Southeast: Dr. Marlow Artis, Craven Early College High School (Craven County Schools) North Central: Dr. Mariah Walker, Wake Young Women’s Leadership Academy (Wake County Public School System) Sandhills: Dr. Latreicia Allen, John Griffin Middle School (Cumberland County Schools) Piedmont Triad: Dr. Darrell A. Harris Jr., Eastern Guilford High School (Guilford County Schools) Southwest: LaTresha Wilson, Tuckaseegee Elementary School (Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools) Northwest: Dustin Farmer, Ashe County High School (Ashe County Schools) Western: Jennifer McBrayer, CHASE Middle School (Rutherford County Schools) Charter Schools: Deborah Brown, The Exploris School, RaleighHence then, the article about nine nc principals named regional finalists for 2026 principal of the year was published today ( ) and is available on NC news line ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
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