Pine View names Stephen Covert as principal

Over the dinner table, Stephen Covert listened as his father, a school principal, told stories from the front lines: how his day went, issues with students and interactions with teachers.

“It’s not a job. It’s a way of life. You have to live the school because it’s part of you and you’re part of it,” said Covert, who grew up to be a principal himself.

On Wednesday, Superintendent Lori White named Covert — a school administrator from Fredericksburg, Virginia — as the next principal at Pine View School.

“I couldn’t be more excited,” Covert, 41, said by phone Wednesday.

Pending School Board approval, Covert will start July 1 and get paid $119,419 a year.

He will lead Pine View, a school of 2,234 students in grades 2-12 and the lone public school for gifted students in Florida.

He replaces longtime principal Steve Largo, who is the longest active principal in the district and is retiring at the end of June after 25 years on the job.

“We felt like at the end of the process we landed on the right person,” said Steve Cantees, the district’s executive director for high schools. “He’s the perfect fit.”

Sarasota officials liked Covert because he built up the gifted program back in Virginia and is passionate about the arts and STEM - science, technology, engineering and math, Cantees said.

Covert has spent most of his career at Spotsylvania County Public Schools, a high-performing district of about 24,000 students and 3,000 employees an hour south of Washington, D.C.

Sarasota County Schools has about 41,000 students and 4,800 employees.

Covert started as a Spanish teacher at Spotsylvania High School, and has been an assistant principal and principal at middle and high schools in that district.

Since July, he had been the district’s executive director for human resources.

He has also been an adjunct faculty member at the University of Mary Washington and a collateral faculty member at the Central Virginia Leadership Academy at Virginia Commonwealth University.

A career highlight came in 2001: He was a first-year principal at the same time his father, Bernie Covert, was a principal.

“That’s a very unique experience,” Covert said. “As I’ve gone throughout my career, I’ve had the epiphanies as, ‘What would my dad do?’ I’ve looked on that quite a few times.”

Covert has a doctorate in education and a master’s degree in education, administration and supervision from Virginia Commonwealth University. He has a bachelor’s degree in Spanish language and literature/geography from Mary Washington College.

In his spare time, he enjoys traveling with his wife, Amy, and doing science experiments with his children, Ben, 9, and Barrett, 4.

“We immediately felt at home,” Covert said after he and his wife traveled to Sarasota this month for his interview. “I couldn’t have had a better feeling. I immediately knew it was going to be the right fit. I’m glad they also feel that.”