14 Standout School Principals Across Austin to Know

Jonno White
Aug 4
11 min read

Last updated: August 2026

Introduction

Fourteen current principals and school leaders across the greater Austin area are introduced below, drawn from Austin ISD and six neighbouring districts plus one independent school. As of August 2026, this directory brings together names from across the region in one place, spanning elementary, middle and high school campuses.

Running a single campus means carrying academics, safety, staffing, family relationships and daily problem solving all at once, often for well over a thousand students and staff at the larger high schools. This list helps a parent, partner organisation or fellow educator quickly see who leads which Austin area campus right now, without needing to search district by district.

The scope here is honest and specific. It covers public school principals across Austin ISD, Round Rock ISD, Pflugerville ISD, Eanes ISD, Manor ISD, Georgetown ISD and Lake Travis ISD, plus one independent school, Hyde Park Schools. It does not attempt to cover every campus in every district. The names are presented alphabetically by surname for easy navigation, not in any order of merit.

Greater Austin has grown quickly over the past decade, and its school leadership reflects that growth. Some of the principals below lead long established campuses in the city itself, while others lead newer or fast growing schools in suburban districts that have absorbed much of the region's recent population increase. Together they offer a genuine cross section of who is currently leading schools across the area.

This is one update in an ongoing series and does not attempt to name every principal across the region. Further Austin area schools and leaders may appear in a future update.

Why Austin school leadership matters

A school's daily culture, safety and academic direction rests heavily on one person's judgement calls, year after year. Understanding who holds that role at a given campus helps families, staff and community partners know exactly who is accountable for the decisions that shape a child's school day, from the first bell to the last.

Austin ISD alone runs dozens of campuses inside city limits, while fast growing neighbouring districts such as Leander, Pflugerville, Hays and Georgetown now serve large numbers of families who consider themselves part of greater Austin. A useful directory has to look past any single district's boundary to reflect how the region actually works and grows, rather than treating Austin ISD as the whole story.

Principals also turn over. A new appointment, an interim posting or a move between districts is common in any given year, which is part of why a directory like this one is worth revisiting over time rather than treating as fixed.

For anyone working with schools professionally, whether in education, community services or event planning, knowing exactly who leads a given campus today, rather than who led it two or three years ago, makes any outreach more useful and more likely to land with the right person.

1. Melvin Bedford

Principal, Austin High School

Melvin Bedford leads Austin High School, one of the city's oldest comprehensive high schools, founded in 1881 in the heart of Austin ISD. His appointment drew local attention as the school's first Black principal in its long history, and local coverage describes him as someone with a reputation for bringing people together across a large and diverse campus community.

That focus on connection matters at a school Austin High's size, where thousands of students, families and staff need a leader who can hold a shared sense of identity together. It is a useful reminder that a principal's most valuable work is often relational, not just administrative.

2. Jordan Benson

Principal, General Marshall Middle School

Jordan Benson leads General Marshall Middle School, a growing Austin ISD campus in Northeast Austin that opened in 2023. As a relatively new school, Marshall is building its identity and traditions while serving families in the Northeast Early College feeder pattern.

Leading a new middle school brings a distinctive challenge: setting clear expectations while each incoming group helps shape the campus culture. Benson's role is a useful example of the leadership work behind opening and growing a school, not only maintaining an established one.

3. James Bush

Principal, Lake Travis High School

James Bush became principal of Lake Travis High School in July 2025, bringing more than two decades of Texas public education experience in teaching, coaching and school leadership. Before Lake Travis, he led Grand Oaks High School in the Conroe area.

At Grand Oaks, he guided a fast growing campus of roughly 3,900 students to measurable academic gains, increased Advanced Placement participation, and statewide recognition for both academics and extracurricular programs. That track record at a similarly large, fast growing campus is directly relevant to a Lake Travis community that has grown quickly in recent years.

4. Christopher Coy

Head of School, Hyde Park Schools

Christopher Coy leads Hyde Park Schools, an independent Austin school, after nearly two decades on staff there, most recently as Upper School Principal before stepping into the Head of School role. That long internal history gives him an unusually detailed view of how the school has changed over time.

Local coverage named him a 2020 Austin Under 40 Finalist in the Youth and Education category, recognition for education leaders under 40 doing notable work in the community. It is a useful marker of an independent school leader who built his career from the inside rather than arriving from elsewhere.

5. Brooke Elarms

Principal, Patsy Sommer Elementary School

Brooke Elarms leads Patsy Sommer Elementary School in Round Rock ISD, one of the fast growing suburban districts that many greater Austin families now call home. Her career has been built inside Round Rock ISD, including earlier service as principal of Pond Springs Elementary School.

Her presence on this list is a useful reminder that a genuinely regional view of Austin school leadership has to look past the city's own boundary into the suburban districts absorbing much of the area's recent population growth, where elementary enrolment is often growing fastest of all.

6. Bobby Garcia

Principal, Manor New Tech High School

Bobby Garcia leads Manor New Tech High School, a STEM P-TECH campus within Manor ISD, one of the districts serving Austin's fast growing eastern edge.

The campus offers pathways that can help students work towards an associate degree and industry certifications alongside their high school studies. That makes Garcia's role a useful example of the coordination required when a secondary school connects daily learning with college and career routes.

7. Michael Grebb

Principal, Hendrickson High School

Michael Grebb leads Hendrickson High School, one of Pflugerville ISD's largest comprehensive high schools, serving a fast growing community just northeast of Austin. Running a campus of that size involves coordinating a large administrative team across academics, athletics and student support, alongside associate and assistant principals who each cover a slice of the student body.

His role sits inside a district that has expanded rapidly alongside Austin's own growth, making Hendrickson a useful example of how suburban high schools are scaling their leadership structures to meet demand from families moving into the wider Austin area.

8. Audrey Guerrero

Principal, Andrews Elementary School

Audrey Guerrero leads Andrews Elementary School in Austin ISD, after more than twenty years of experience spanning bilingual teaching, instructional coaching and school administration across two states. She is a former recipient of the University of Texas Collaborative Urban Leadership Project Scholarship.

That scholarship supports educators pursuing urban school leadership, and her path through it into an Austin ISD principalship is a useful example of how a formal leadership pipeline can shape a career that eventually leads back into the classroom community it started in.

9. Alexandra Hassett

Principal, Baranoff Elementary School

Alexandra Hassett leads Baranoff Elementary School in south Austin ISD, returning to the same campus where she once taught third through fifth grade, after also serving as assistant principal at Baldwin Elementary, another Austin ISD campus.

Returning to lead a school where she previously taught gives her a direct, first hand understanding of the campus community she now runs, from established family relationships to a working knowledge of the building and its staff. That kind of internal continuity is a useful counterpoint to leaders who arrive at a brand new campus with no prior history there.

10. Alfonso R. Longoria

Principal, East View High School

Alfonso R. Longoria leads East View High School in Georgetown ISD, bringing more than 24 years in education, including earlier roles as principal at Tippit Middle School, academy director within Austin ISD, and assistant principal in Leander ISD before his current appointment.

That path through middle school leadership, an Austin ISD academy director role and an assistant principalship in a third district before reaching a Georgetown ISD high school principalship shows how school leaders often move between several neighbouring districts as they build a career across the wider Austin region.

11. Nathan Neal

Principal, Northeast Early College High School

Nathan Neal leads Northeast Early College High School, an Austin ISD campus where students can graduate with an associate degree alongside their regular diploma through a partnership structure common to early college campuses.

Running an early college campus asks a principal to coordinate closely with a partner higher education institution as well as the usual demands of a comprehensive high school. That dual focus makes his role a useful example of how Austin ISD is building direct pathways from high school into college credit.

12. Steve Ramsey

Principal, Westlake High School

Steve Ramsey leads Westlake High School in Eanes ISD, after spending 11 years at the school earlier in his career as an administrator, teacher and coach across football, soccer and track, before moving to West Ridge Middle School to serve as its principal and later returning to lead Westlake itself.

That long earlier tenure at Westlake, followed by a separate principalship at another Eanes ISD campus before coming back, gives him an unusually deep, first hand institutional memory of the school's programs and community, built well before he took on the top job there.

13. Tracy Sheridan

Principal, Doss Elementary School

Tracy Sheridan leads Doss Elementary School in Austin ISD, where she served as a maths coach before becoming the campus principal. That earlier role centred on helping teachers strengthen instruction across classrooms rather than working with only one class at a time.

Moving from campus instructional support into the principal role gives her direct knowledge of how teaching decisions travel from planning into daily classroom practice. It is a useful example of a leadership path grounded in the work of helping other educators improve.

14. Roxanne Walker

Principal, Gonzalo Garza Independence High School

Roxanne Walker leads Gonzalo Garza Independence High School, an Austin ISD campus designed for students who need a more flexible pathway towards graduation than a traditional comprehensive high school offers.

Leading an alternative high school means balancing individual student needs with clear academic expectations and a strong sense of belonging. Walker's role is a useful reminder that school leadership also includes creating credible routes forward for students whose education has not followed a standard path.

What these leaders show us about Austin school leadership

A few patterns are genuinely visible across these fourteen profiles. Several principals, including Alexandra Hassett and Steve Ramsey, returned to lead a school or district where they had already spent years teaching or coaching. Deep familiarity with a specific community appears repeatedly as a real asset, not just a resume detail.

Several others, including James Bush, Alfonso R. Longoria and Christopher Coy, moved into their current role after building a track record at a different campus or a different level within the same field. That mix of local continuity and cross campus experience suggests there is no single right path into a principalship.

The list also reflects how quickly the greater Austin region is growing. Districts such as Round Rock, Pflugerville, Manor and Georgetown now serve large numbers of families who consider themselves part of greater Austin, even though their campuses sit in separate districts from Austin ISD itself. Any accurate regional view of school leadership has to look past a single district's boundary.

Finally, the range of school types here, from a 140 year old comprehensive high school to a STEM P-TECH campus to an early college partnership, shows that greater Austin families now have a genuinely wide range of public and independent school models available to them, each led by a named current principal working inside a specific community.

Taken together, these fourteen stories suggest that strong school leadership in greater Austin comes from more than one direction at once: some through years of patient internal progression at a single school, others through a broader career built across several campuses and districts before arriving at their current post.

How to use this list

Start with the principal whose school type, level or district is closest to your own situation, whether that is a family evaluating a campus, a fellow educator, or a partner organisation planning outreach. Read the linked official school page for direct, current detail beyond what fits in a short profile, including contact information, campus news and enrolment guidance.

If you work with schools professionally, this list can help you map which districts and campus types are active in a given part of the greater Austin region before you reach out. A principal's time is limited, so a specific, well researched reason for contact tends to land better than a generic introduction, and knowing the right current name to address is a useful first step.

Parents and community members can use this list as a starting point for understanding who leads a school they are considering, then follow up directly with the campus for enrollment, volunteering or partnership questions rather than relying on this summary alone. A short list like this works best as an entry point into further reading, not a final answer.

Fellow educators may also find it useful simply as a quick reference for who currently leads a nearby campus, especially when working across district lines on shared programs, professional networks or student transitions between schools.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is this a list of Austin's "best" school principals?

No. This is a directory of fourteen current principals across the greater Austin area, presented alphabetically by surname, not in any order of merit. It recognises current leaders across several districts and one independent school, rather than judging or comparing their performance.

Does this list cover every school in Austin?

No. Austin ISD alone runs dozens of campuses, and several neighbouring districts serve the wider region. This update introduces fourteen principals across seven public school districts and one independent school, with more of the region likely to appear in a future update.

How is this list organised?

The fourteen principals are presented alphabetically by surname rather than in any particular order, to make the directory easy to navigate rather than to compare one school or leader against another. Each entry follows the same short format: the principal's current role and campus, followed by one fact worth knowing about their background.

How often does school leadership change in the Austin area?

Principal turnover is common in any given year, through retirement, promotion or a move between districts. Several principals on this list stepped into their current role within the last one to two years, reflecting how often the region's school leadership changes as districts grow and staff move between campuses.

What is the difference between a principal and a head of school?

Principal is the standard title used across public school districts. Head of school is more common at independent or private schools, such as Hyde Park Schools in this list, and typically carries similar day to day leadership responsibility for one campus, alongside a closer relationship with the school's board or governing body.

Conclusion

Fourteen current Austin area school principals are introduced above, spanning Austin ISD and six neighbouring districts plus one independent school. Each leads a campus that shapes hundreds or thousands of students, families and staff every single day, work that rarely gets the public attention it deserves outside their own school community.

The patterns across these profiles, from deep local continuity to cross district career paths to a genuinely wide range of school models, reflect a region that is growing quickly and diversifying in how it educates its children. A useful next step is to read the linked official page for any principal whose school is relevant to you, then reach out directly to that campus with a specific question or purpose in mind rather than a general enquiry.

Greater Austin's school system will keep growing and changing, and the people leading its campuses will keep changing with it. This list will be revisited and expanded as more of the region's school leaders are introduced in future updates, with the same emphasis on naming who genuinely holds the role right now.

Bring practical leadership support to your school

I work with school leadership teams through keynotes, workshops and facilitated leadership sessions, drawing on Working Genius and other practical leadership tools. If your school or district is exploring outside support for a leadership day or team session, email jonno@consultclarity.org.

About the Author

Jonno White is a Brisbane-based leadership consultant, keynote speaker and Certified Working Genius Facilitator, and the author of Step Up or Step Out. He works with schools, corporates and nonprofits around the world. To enquire about a keynote, workshop or facilitated leadership session, email jonno@consultclarity.org.

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