Phoenix Academy has got its first real principal.

LaVerne Mattocks has been named the new principal of the alternative high school, which is transitioning from a program to a fully-functioning high school this fall.

The transition would make the school eligible for federal and state funding. It also requires Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools to develop a School Improvement Plan and to participate in state accountability measures - with relaxed standards.

North Carolina requires each school district to operate an alternative high school program.

Mattocks comes from Orange County Schools' Orange High School in Hillsborough, where she was assistant principal. She has also been assistant principal at both Riverside and Hillside High in Durham. She replaces director Burmadeane George, who retired last month.

In other appointment news, Cicily McCrimmon has been named the new principal of Phillips Middle School. She replaces Eileen Tully, who was named principal of East Chapel Hill High last month.

McCrimmon has been the assistant principal at Smith Middle School since September 2008. She assumes her new job July 8. The search for a new assistant principal at Smith Middle is underway.