In this April 2016 photo, Principal Cory Pengelly camped overnight on Brown Elementary School’s front lawn to honor a promise he made to his students to top a reading challenge that year. Pengelly and his family are relocating to another state and he is stepping down as principal at Brown. (Photos by Scott Bolthouse — The Huron Hub)

By Scott Bolthouse | The Huron Hub
ScottBolthouse@HuronHub.com
Posted Friday, July 26, 2019

Corey Pengelly, principal of Brown Elementary in New Boston, stepped down from the position Friday.

Pengelly said the reason for his resignation is due to his family’s decision to relocate to another state.

The announcement was made in an email Friday sent out to families in the school district by Supt. Donovan Rowe.

Rowe shared a letter written by Pengelly to students and staff of Brown.

“For the last eleven years, I have been proud to serve as a teacher and principal at Brown Elementary in the Huron School District. This experience has been one of the most fulfilling professional experiences of my life,” Pengelly said in the letter.

He continued: “Nevertheless, my wife and I recently made the decision to relocate my family to another state. As a result, I have stepped down as principal of Brown Elementary.”

Read Pengelly’s full letter here

Supt. Rowe said in a statement that it’s not easy to see Pengelly leave and that he will be missed.

“This is a bittersweet moment for Mr. Pengelly and for us. We will miss him and all that he had to bring to the Brown Elementary School Community.  He has been a good friend and colleague, and it will be difficult to see him go.  Nonetheless, we are wishing him and his familiy all the best in the future,” Rowe said.

Rowe said the process for finding a new principal is already in the works.

“As part of our search for a dynamic school leader, we have posted the principal position with our professional posting sources, and we will be following our hiring process as we move forward.  We plan to have the process completed before the end of August in order to have a new principal in place before staff and students return to school.”

While principal at Brown, Pengelly would often present special academic challenges to his students which usually included some kind of fun reward.

In April 2016, he camped overnight on the school’s front lawn to honor a promise he made to his students to top a reading challenge. Brown’s students logged nearly 300,000 reading minutes during that event — doubling that of their original goal at the time.

The following school year in the fall, Pengelly promised the students the chance to slime him if they reached their goal during a school fundraiser that year.