After serving as the first principal of Hollifield Station Elementary School, Glenn Heisey has embarked on another first -- taking on a newly created mentoring position in the Howard County school system.

A 30-year veteran of the county schools, Heisey, 50, is now the system's coordinator of leadership development. Heisey's salary for the position is $133,894, schools spokeswoman Patti Caplan said.

In his new position, created this year, Heisey will be working with principals and administrators to coordinate the school system's new mentoring program for leadership interns.

Leadership interns are current assistant principals and teachers who are interested in becoming principals later in their careers.

Heisey said he has been "very interested" in mentoring future administrators for the past couple of years.

"When this job posting came up in June, I decided to go for it," he said.

Heisey said his new position, which he started on Aug. 6, was born out of the need for system-wide succession planning to replace current administrators approaching retirement age. Heisey said he will be working with principals and central office leaders to provide consistent professional development throughout the whole school system.

Heisey said this was the right time for a change for both him and Hollifield Station. The school went through a redistricting last year, and a change during that time "would've been traumatic," Heisey said.

Lisa Booth, who was principal at Running Brook Elementary, in Columbia, for five years, is the new principal of Hollifield Station. Before that, she was an assistant principal at Swansfield Elementary, also in Columbia.

Troy Todd, who was the assistant principal at Running Brook, has taken over as principal at the school.

"Lisa is going to be tremendous," Heisey said. "Her skill set coming in here is a perfect match for what this community needs."

Booth said she is excited about joining Hollifield Station and feels Running Brook "is in great hands" under Todd.

Heisey opened Hollifield Station, in Ellicott City, in 1997 with about 500 students.

"When I first came to look at it, there was nothing here but a farm field," Heisey said of the Hollifield Station site.

The number of students at the school reached about 850, Heisey said, and now, since redistricting, is about 600 students.

Before he was principal at Hollifield Station, Heisey was principal of Bollman Bridge Elementary School, in Jessup, for four years. He began his career in Howard County in 1979 as a fifth-grade teacher at Worthington Elementary School, in Ellicott City.

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