Washington High Principal John Cline resigns

CEDAR RAPIDS - Washington High School Principal John Cline has resigned, he told school families in an email Tuesday.

Cline, who became principal of the Cedar Rapids high school in 2017, said he has accepted a principal job at a virtual high school in North Carolina's Charlotte-Mecklenburg school district.

His resignation is effective June 30.

School district spokeswoman Colleen Scholer said in an email Wednesday the district will provide information about filling Cline's position in the coming week.

In his email to families, Cline said his new job will allow him to be closer to home. He was an assistant principal at South Mecklenburg High School from 2013 to 2017.

'The role allows me to return to an area of the country where I can be closer to family and to serve in an exciting and rapidly growing space that provides flexibility and personalized learning for students,” Cline said in the email.

In a statement, Cedar Rapids School Superintendent Noreen Bush wished Cline well.

'I'm so happy for John that he will be closer to family, but we will miss him as an important leader at Washington High School,” she said in an email to staff Tuesday. 'We thank him for the work he has done within the district over the past three years.”

Cline was the sole finalist in a 2017 principal search at Washington High. The search came about after then-Superintendent Brad Buck asked Principal Ralph Plagman, who led the school for 35 years, to resign in 2016 amid a debacle stemming from a substitute teacher's arrest for sexual exploitation of a student.

Following Plagman's resignation, Washington High School was led by interim Principal Carlos Grant for one school year. Grant has since left the district to be a high school principal in Greenville, S.C.

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