Eleanor Roosevelt High School (ERHS) welcomes ERHS graduate Dr. Portia Barnes as its new principal. Barnes said she is “excited to continue in the Roosevelt Way, building on tenets of Respect, Integrity and Responsibility.” “I am overjoyed to be back home,” Barnes said. “When I walked the halls during my high school journey, I would have never thought I would be back here as the principal – and the first female principal. I consider myself home-grown – it does not get any better than that. The opportunity to nurture, lead and support the growth of the staff and students is exciting. To now walk the halls as a leading servant is very full circle.” Raised in Prince George’s County, Barnes was in the Science and Tech program and graduated from ERHS in 1989.
Having worked as administrator of the Science and Technology program at Oxon Hill High School, where she was an assistant principal, Barnes sees similarities and contrasts between Oxon Hill and ERHS. Oxon Hill had a smaller population with roughly 1,500 students, while ERHS is expecting 2,450 this year. Both have a growing English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) population. Barnes appreciated both schools for their “supportive community of stakeholders, teachers, support staff and parents who are equally invested in the success of our students,” she said, and praised ERHS for the “strong sense of Raider Pride and the ability to achieve anything.”
The school district has three top priorities for this year, Barnes stated: school culture and climate, accelerating achievement in mathematics, and social emotional learning and mental health. Barnes said that because “the pandemic and distance learning resulted in interrupted academic and developmental growth, all plans for ERHS will be rooted in that reality and closing that gap.”
While ERHS did not have a full roster of teachers at the time of interview, Barnes was “optimistic we will be staffed 100 percent by the first day,” after filling four instructional vacancies.
Barnes studied biology at North Carolina A&T State University and achieved her childhood dream of becoming a doctor with a degree from Temple University School of Podiatric Medicine, practicing medicine in Baltimore, North Carolina and Prince George’s County. After teaching at Prince George’s Community College, Barnes turned to education as a full-time career at Dr. Henry A. Wise Jr. High School in 2006, where her many roles included biomedical science lead teacher and academy of health and biosciences coordinator, before moving to Oxon Hill.