Charlottesville’s Burnley-Moran Elementary School will not only be getting a new name this summer but also a new principal.
Charlottesville City Schools announced that Brad Handrich will take over as head of the elementary school on July 1 ahead of the school’s rechristening as Sunrise Elementary in the new school year.
Handrich comes from the city’s neighboring school division in Albemarle County, where he has served as principal of Baker-Butler Elementary School since 2023. Before that he was assistant principal for Greer and Mountain View elementary schools, also in the Albemarle school division.
“We are delighted to welcome Mr. Handrich to the Charlottesville City Schools family and to Sunrise Elementary,” said Charlottesville Superintendent Royal Gurley in a statement.
“His extensive experience and dedication to student success make him an excellent fit for our community.”
Handrich is filling a position that current Principal Elizabeth Korab has held since 2018. Korab is remaining with the school division but will be taking on the role of planning principal for the city’s new early childhood education center.
The preschool is expected to open in time for the 2026-27 academic year and will operate as a centralized early education center for the entire city, which currently supports six preschool programs spread across its elementary schools. The center will be located in what is now Walker Upper Elementary School, which teachers fifth and sixth graders. Walker’s youngest students will be moved back to their neighborhood elementary schools and its oldest students will be moved to a renovated Charlottesville Middle School, formerly Buford Middle.
Handrich’s experience extends beyond the reaches of Central Virginia. Not only has he taught in both Virginia and Colorado, where he received his own education, but also in the countries of Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela.
This diverse background has given him the opportunity to teach English language learners and Spanish language immersion courses. According to the city school division, it’s his “data-driven approach to supporting the whole child and reducing chronic absenteeism” that made him a standout candidate.
“I am excited to build on the strong foundation of Burnley-Moran as the school begins a new chapter as Sunrise Elementary,” Handrich said in his own statement. “I am eager to partner with staff, families, and students to co-create a warm, safe, and effective learning environment for everyone.”
The renaming of Burnley-Moran is part of a divisionwide initiative which began five years ago when the Charlottesville School Board decided to bring the names of city schools in line with modern standards and values amid a nationwide racial reckoning.
Burnley-Moran was one of four elementary schools to be renamed. The school was named for Carrie Burnley and Sarepta Moran, two of the city’s first women principals — who also were both members of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, a hereditary association for women descended from Confederate Civil War soldiers criticized for promoting the Lost Cause myth that the South did not fight in favor of slavery.
According to a statement posted to the school division’s website, Sunrise is “a nod to the school being the easternmost school in our city. … Committee members like the way that sunrise conveys a sense of hope, warmth, and new beginnings. It shows the power of students rising through their years in our school.”
While the original names were deemed controversial, the naming process was not without its own controversy — particularly in regard to Burnley-Moran.
The school division said that the elementary school’s current namesakes “served white-only schools as teacher, principal, or superintendent during the era of school segregation. In other words, the names evoke and honor an era (school segregation) that does not reflect our current values and work.”
But at least one of those namesakes’ descendants has taken issue with that characterization.
Chuck Moran, the great-nephew of Sarepta Moran, has been particularly vocal about his frustration over the renaming of the schools.
It would later be confirmed that the “historian” the school division regularly cited in materials supporting the renamings, Phil Varner, was not in fact a historian, but a software engineer.
The name review process, Chuck Moran says, diminished the accomplishments of his great-aunt. He told The Daily Progress last summer that assumptions were made about her personal beliefs based on her membership in the United Daughters of the Confederacy. The group had roughly 100,000 members at its peak, not all of them particularly passionate about its cause — just as some members of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Junior League or various garden clubs might see those organizations more as social clubs than mission-driven or partisan groups.
Despite some pushback, the School Board finalized the renaming in a unanimous vote in January.
Burnley-Moran families and staff will have the opportunity to meet Handrich before he joins the school staff. He will be in attendance, along with Gurley, at a “Popsicles on the Playground” event from 5 to 6:30 p.m. May 15.
Source: www.dailyprogress.com