If ever Richmond school administrators wanted to implement a new direction, this would be the year.

More than a fifth of the city's public schools are getting new principals this school year, and only one person in that group of 11 was a principal in Richmond last year.

Waide Robinson, the school system's director of human resources, said he was confident and nervous at the same time after helping bring in the largest group of new school leaders in recent memory.

"They're instructionally sound," he said. "They can work with all children, but they want to work with children in an urban environment."

Still, he said, hiring that many principals at once -- apparently unprecedented in Richmond -- was a challenge.

Thomas Beatty is the lone incumbent and has five years experience as a principal in the city. He's moving from Thompson Middle School to Richmond Community High School this school year.

Of the 10 others, five worked in Richmond last school year, including four as assistant principals. Of the other five, four were principals last year -- two in North Carolina and two in Virginia. The fifth was a school administrator in Maryland.

"We had more waiting in the wings we could have hired," said Harold Fitrer, who as Richmond's assistant superintendent for administration helped hire the principals before he retired in June.

Neither Robinson nor Fitrer, who preceded Robinson as director of human resources, could remember Richmond having so many vacancies at once.

Beatty said he was willing to help his peers adjust to their new positions.

With 10 of the 11 principals on hand this month for a meet-and-greet lunch at the Richmond Technical Center, Beatty preached the power of "collaboration, understanding you are in this with a lot of other professionals."

When asked what advice he wished he'd heard when he first became a principal, he didn't hesitate.

"Listen to the thoughts and comments of the people around you," he said.

The big challenge, Beatty said, is figuring out how to involve the community in the school -- and what to do when the community starts showing up.

"We have a way of saying, 'We want more parental input,'" he said. "But when they're actually here, it's like, 'Oh, maybe not so much.'"

His successor at Thompson, Rickie G. Hopkins, has already implemented a plan for communicating with parents. His teachers will keep logs this school year and will need to show contact with at least five parents a week. The contact can be in person, on the phone or by e-mail.

"We need to bring the parents, the students and the teachers together," said Hopkins, who is returning to Richmond after two years in Westmoreland County. He spent seven of his 17 years in Richmond as an assistant principal and all but two of those years working in middle schools.

Willie Bell, the new principal at George Wythe High School, had one thought in mind -- structure -- as he focused on taking over a school that in recent years has had an ever-changing administration and occasional fits of violence.

"Education is education," said Bell, who was principal last year at Northampton County High School West in Gaston, N.C. "Research shows you all kids need structure."

And all schools need principals, a monumental accomplishment for Richmond this year.

Robinson, speaking after a recent Richmond School Board meeting, said he was ready to see them in action.

"They have the capability to work anywhere," he said. "But they want to work here."

Contact Zachary Reid at (804) 775-8179 or zreid@timesdispatch.com.

New principals in Richmond

Peter Glessman
Binford Middle School
Last year: assistant principal, Thompson Middle School
Former principal: Juanita Nicholson, now an exceptional-education coordinator

Arcelius Brickhouse
G.W. Carver Elementary School
Last year: central office administrator, Prince George'sCounty, Md.
Former principal: Iris Page, retired

Linda L. Sims
E.S.H. Greene Elementary School
Last year: assistant principal, G.H. Reid Elementary School
Former principal: Cynthia Gaines, retired

Willie Bell
George Wythe High School
Last year: principal, Northampton County High School West, Gaston, N.C.
Former principal*: Mel Rose, now principal at Amelia County High School

Natasha Thompson
Huguenot High School
Last year: principal, International Studies program, Garinger High School, Charlotte, N.C.
Former principal**: Cynthia Gentry, now an assistant principal at Huguenot

Candace Veney- Chaplin
Open High School
Last year: teacher, Open High
Former principal***: Priscilla Green, who died in May

Thomas Beatty
Richmond Community High School
Last year: principal, Thompson Middle School
Former principal: Howard Hopkins, retired

Indira Williams
Summer Hill Elementary School
Last year: assistant principal, Miles Jones Elementary School
Former principal: Joseph Gilreath, retired

Tonya Roane
Thomas Jefferson High School
Last year: principal, Charles City County Middle School
Former principal: Barbara Ulschmid, now an instructional specialist

Rickie G. Hopkins
Thompson Middle School
Last year: principal, Montross Middle School, Westmoreland County
Former principal: Thomas Beatty, now principal at Richmond Community High

Jeanine Turner
Henderson Middle School
Last year: assistant principal, Henderson
Former principal: Dionne Ward, now acting executive director, secondary education

*A. Parker Land began last year as principal at George Wythe. He went on sick leave midway through the year, and Rose, an assistant principal, was named acting principal.
**Gentry, a longtime assistant principal, became principal at Huguenot last year after the person hired for the job decided not to take it just before school began. Gentry requested a return to assistant principal.
***Veney-Chaplin was named principal at Open late last school year after Green died of breast cancer.