Dear Annandale High School Community:

The Region 2 Office is pleased to announce that Mr. Shawn DeRose, current principal of Glasgow Middle School, has been named the new principal of Annandale High School.  His official start date will be February 3, 2020. 

Mr. DeRose has been the principal at Glasgow Middle since 2015 where he was named Region 2 Outstanding Principal of the Year in 2019. Prior to being named principal at Glasgow, Mr. DeRose served as the assistant principal of J.E.B. Stuart/Justice High School, as well as an assistant principal and director of student activities at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science & Technology (TJHSST).  In 2014, Mr. DeRose was named as the Secondary Assistant Principal of the Year for the State of Virginia by the VA Association of Secondary School Principals.  He has over 15 years of experience as an administrator within FCPS. 

Mr. DeRose understands the challenges and opportunities of serving a school and community with high diversity, high poverty, and high populations of English language learners. During his highly successful tenure at Glasgow MS, Mr. DeRose built a thriving Professional Learning Community in which staff members engaged in continuous learning which led to the delivery of high-quality core instruction to more than 1,900 students.  Mr. DeRose’s record of success in leading instruction and high academic achievement for all students is well-known across the school division.  He understands how to unlock innovator skills in his students, promote growth mindsets, foster grit, and teach the patterns of thinking our students will need to be successful in the 21^st century. In addition, Mr. DeRose built a strong Middle Years Program (MYP) at Glasgow that includes interdisciplinary lesson-planning across all grade levels.  Mr. DeRose is an instructional leader who has developed school plans that have led to significant increases in literacy and numeracy leading Glasgow to full accreditation by the Virginia Department of Education which includes increasing advanced pass rates on the standards of learning.

While at Stuart/Justice High School he led the school’s adoption and implementation of the IB Middle Years Program that shifted classroom instruction to focus on creative, critical and reflective thinking skills. At Stuart/Justice he led the high school to full accreditation in the area of mathematics. In addition, during his tenure at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology he was involved with the advanced academics component of the FCPS curriculum and developed an understanding of academic rigor making sure advanced academic curriculum is accessible to all students.  Also while at TJHSST he communicated and built strong relationships with the PTSA, Colonial Athletic Boosters, Academic Boosters, and Performing Arts Boosters to promote and enhance the TJHSST athletic and academic programs.

Mr. DeRose is a leader who cultivates a positive school community, models high expectations for all, builds collaborative trust within the school and the community at large. Mr. DeRose leads by visibility.  A regular practice for Mr. DeRose is meeting with students to talk about the rules and the importance of kindness and respect and what it looks like in the school. 

Mr. DeRose is an excellent communicator and will work hard to build partnerships; he understands the importance of building consensus across multiple levels in order to achieve school-wide and district-wide goals.  While Mr. DeRose has been principal of Glasgow he has worked with parents to create and build a sense of community among the teachers and the greater school community, including a thriving parent center.

Mr. DeRose holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Education from Ohio University and attained a Master of Arts degree in Educational Administration from The Ohio State University.   

Please join me in welcoming Mr. DeRose as the new principal of Annandale High School.

Fabio Zuluaga, Ed.D.

Assistant Superintendent, Region 2