It certainly was a line-up of VBCPS legends speaking at the annual fall quarterly meeting of the Virginia Beach Association of Secondary School Principals (VBASSP) at Landstown High School: Governor’s STEM & Technology Academy last week.

Billed as the “Mount Rushmore of School Administration,” the program’s panel discussion solicited insights from former Beach administrators, including former VBCPS Superintendent Edward Brickell and past principals Jerry Deviney, J. Wylie French, Pat Griffin, Patsy Slaughter, Emilie Tilley and Lou Tonelson.

For just over an hour, VBASSP President Patti Jenkins, principal of Kempsville Middle School, moderated as panelists took questions crafted by the sixty administrators in attendance. Speaking on issues ranging from instructional leadership and the opening of new schools to the importance of extracurricular activities and community outreach, the speakers provided wisdom cultivated over two centuries worth of collective service to our city and school division.

The association also took opportunity to share birthday remembrances that evening with French, who celebrated his 80^th birthday that day.