Meet the Principal: Debbie Fitzpatrick

When you take over the helm of one of the oldest, highest achieving and best situated elementary schools in the Hillsborough County School District fleet, why chart a different course? Ballast Point Elementary’s new principal Debbie Fitzpatrick plans to keep a steady bearing, rather than rock the boat.

And who could blame her? From a new principal’s perspective, Ballast Point’s situation seems taylor-made: tucked inside an old Tampa enclave of affluence and power; robustly supported by parent groups and the community; rated an A school for 12 consecutive years; an historic, picturesque campus.

“Ballast Point is unique,” said Fitzpatrick, “because there are a couple of generations in the neighborhood that have attended the school. I think there is a lot of pride in the area and the school. I think of it as the little education utopia.” Even Fitzpatrick’s appointment as principal reflects Ballast Point’s culture of constancy. She was the assistant principal since 2006.

As for curricular changes, Fitzpatrick doesn’t see the sense in changing a winning game plan. She wants more of the same, only more. “We’re going to be focusing on enriching the students,” she said. “A lot of students are high achieving and they’ve scored proficiently on their assessments. They have already mastered the benchmarks. So this year we want to raise the bar. We want to show more than a year’s growth.”

Continuity is also Fitzpatrick’s goal in fostering Ballast Point’s well established school culture. “School culture is very important to me,’’ Fitzpatrick said. “It has been a family atmosphere here, and I want to continue the culture. We work together as a community, we engage community members to beautify our school. Our PTA and our dad’s club provide mentors and students who need extra support and attention.”

The dad’s club flexed more muscle than that, spearheading a nearly $100,000 fundraising drive which resulted in the installation of a new court pavilion on the campus over the summer. “I’m very lucky,” said Fitzpatrick. “I have a group of parents that will take care of us with anything we need.”

Fitzpatrick graduated from McArthur High School in Hollywood, Fla., in 1984. That year she moved to Tampa to study at the University of South Florida, where she earned a bachelors degree in elementary education in 1991. Her first classroom assignment was in 1992, teaching first grade at Egypt Lake Elementary. In 1998 she moved to Citrus Park Elementary, then Mary Bryant Elementary from 2002 to 2006. That year she was given the assistant principle post at Ballast Point, which she held until making principle this year. Fitzpatrick earned a masters degree in educational leadership from the University of South Florida in 2005.

Fitzpatrick lives in the Eagles in northwest Hillsborough County with her husband Tim and their two children. Kyle is a senior and Mandy a sophomore at Sickles High School.

As for balancing the roles of administrator and educator, Fitzpatrick said, “My day is 80 percent instructional leader, and supporting the teachers. For the managerial and tedious tasks, I try not to sequester myself.”