Cedar Hill ISD Announces New Adminstrator Hires

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Dr. Kisha McDonald
Kisha McDonald Photo provided by Cedar Hill ISD

Executive Director of School Leadership – Secondary, Dr. Kisha McDonald

(CEDAR HILL, TX) The Cedar Hill Independent School District Board of Trustees voted on Monday night to hire two administrators, Executive Director of School Leadership – Secondary, Dr. Kisha McDonald and Highlands Elementary Principal Candice Griffin.

McDonald will be in a newly-created administrative role that will oversee grades 6-through-12 at Cedar Hill High School, Cedar Hill Collegiate High School, Cedar Hill Collegiate Academy, Bessie Coleman Middle School and Permenter Middle School.

She’s worked as a Texas educator for 21 years, most recently in Mansfield ISD where she was the Director of Social-Emotional Learning. Prior to that, she was a principal and an assistant principal.

McDonald also taught in Lancaster ISD, Dallas ISD, Tyler ISD, and in Bryan ISD where she began her career as a paraprofessional. McDonald earned her doctorate in supervision, curriculum and instruction from Texas A&M-Commerce. She has two Master’s Degrees – in Counseling from Prairie View A&M University, and in Education Administration from Texas A&M-Texarkana.

McDonald earned her Bachelor’s Degree from Texas A&M University in College Station.

In 2015, McDonald was nominated for the National Distinguished Principal Program when she was principal of T.A. Howard Middle School in Mansfield ISD.

McDonald and her husband, Terrance, have two sons – a college student at the University of Houston and a high school senior.

Candice Griffin

Highlands Elementary Principal Candice Griffin

Griffin succeeds Damian Patton, who became CHISD Student Services Coordinator on June 15. Highlands received a “B” from the Texas Education Agency in 2018-19.

Griffin has a long history of educating scholars in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, especially in the Best Southwest area, for the past 12 years.

She arrives at Highlands after working as the assistant principal at Alexander Elementary School in Duncanville ISD for the past three years.

Griffin taught in Desoto ISD, Grand Prairie ISD and in charter schools. During that time, she was a reading interventionist and English Second Language Teacher. Highlands is home to CHISD Bilingual Education Program.

Griffin earned her Master’s Degree in Educational Leadership from Dallas Baptist University and her Bachelor’s Degree from Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University in Tallahassee, Florida.