New Principal Hired at Cedar Ridge High School

Heather Blackmon has been hired as the new principal at Cedar Ridge High School.

She has nearly 22 years of experience in the field of education, including 15 years as a high school social studies teacher. She’s also worked as an administrator for Alamance-Burlington and Guilford Public Schools.

For the past two-and-a-half years, she’s been principal at the Career and Technical Education Center for the Alamance-Burlington School System.

Located in Burlington, it was the first high school built in Alamance County in 40 years.

“We offer nothing but CTE courses,” Blackmon told WCHL. “And we’ve built a great rapport and a great group of students that come over here two periods out of the day from their home schools, and take specialized career and technical education courses that are not offered at their home schools.”

The school takes two sets of students – one in the morning, and another in the afternoon. Blackmon says that, this past year, the school served around 800 students.

Blackmon handed in her resignation letter at The CTE Center on Tuesday.

She says that while her experience there has been fulfilling, her dream has always been to retire as a principal at a school like Cedar Ridge High.

“I miss so much of the traditional school,” she says. “The athletics, the extracurricular activities, the core courses, working with a large number of teachers. And I’ve really wanted that for a long time.”

Blackmon has done her research, of course, and she says the reputation of Cedar Ridge High was a big draw for her.

“It’s got an excellent faculty,” she says. “They have a fantastic reputation. I’m excited about working with the International Baccalaureate Program.”

Cedar Ridge High School Principal John Wheeler announced his resignation in early June, after four years in the position. He’s taking a job as principal of Atlee High School in Hanover County.