Central High’s new president is the first Black and first female leader in the storied school’s history

Katharine Davis’ grandfather didn’t make it past seventh grade. Her grandmother didn’t finish ninth grade. Both had to leave school to help support their families in southern Alabama.

That their granddaughter is about to become the first Black and first female president of Central High School, the storied Philadelphia magnet, is both “surreal” and “historically significant” to Davis.

Central, founded in 1836, is the second-oldest high school in the U.S. Its principals are known as “presidents,” and if you lined up a gallery of their portraits, there would be 14 white men. That the 15th portrait will be of a person of color, a woman, “is long overdue,” Davis said.

“It is my hope as the first that the students at Central, in the current class and in upcoming classes, will think, ‘Wow, President Davis was able to accomplish this. I also can be the person to shatter a glass ceiling,’” said Davis, a Philadelphia native and Central graduate herself. She is currently the principal of C.W. Henry Elementary in Mount Airy.

Davis, who will officially start her new job July 1, comes to Central at a crucial time in its history, amid citywide questions about who gets access to coveted spots at Philadelphia’s elite schools and about equity within them.

She is not daunted by those questions, nor by the prospect of becoming a high school principal for the first time in her career, nor by the thought of leading, at age 34, the city’s second-largest school, with 2,400 students, 130 faculty, and tens of thousands of alumni, many of whom are not shy about their views on what should happen at Central.

“I am honored to be the person who was selected to lead Central in its next chapter. I am confident in my ability to do it,” Davis said.

As a member of Central’s class of 2005 — Class 264 in Central-speak — Davis didn’t dream she’d one day become its president. She didn’t even think she wanted to work in education. She declared an animal science major at Cornell University so that she could become a veterinarian, but fell in love with teaching during an internship.

After college graduation, Davis worked at a New York elementary school through an AmeriCorps program. The work energized her, and she then set on a path to becoming a full-fledged teacher through the New York City Teaching Fellows program. She taught in classrooms in the Bronx and Manhattan, then spent two years as an assistant principal at a Brooklyn charter school.

Davis returned to Philadelphia in 2017 through PhillyPLUS, a principal-training program. She was an intern principal at Cayuga Elementary in Hunting Park, then became co-principal at Harding Middle School in Frankford. She took over at Henry in 2019.

Davis loves Henry, and had intended to stay there for many years, but when she heard the Central job was open, and was approached about putting her hat in the ring, Davis felt she couldn’t let the opportunity pass her by.

Walking the same path to her interview in Central’s wrestling gym as she had as a student, “I had a host of flashbacks,” Davis said. She thought about Sheldon Pavel, who spent nearly 30 years as Central’s president.

“He was a Philadelphia legend; he had such a presence at Central,” Davis said of Pavel, who retired in 2012 and died in 2021.

Ted Domers is confident Davis will make a similarly impressive mark on Central. Domers, the assistant superintendent who led the Central president search for the Philadelphia School District, said Davis was the unanimous choice of the hiring committee to succeed Timothy McKenna, who spent 10 years as Central’s president. McKenna is now deputy chief of accountability for the school district.

“I think Kate’s amazing, a thoughtful, strategic leader,” said Domers. The Central community weighed in on what they wanted in a president, and Davis checked all the boxes, Domers said — “an equity-centered leader with a strong instructional background who had a strong vision for the school. Kate exceeded every one of those competencies.”

Jason Carrión, the principal of Cayuga Elementary, and Davis’ mentor in her first Philadelphia job, saw a star in Davis early on. Carrión asked Davis to help Cayuga adopt more culturally responsive curriculum and materials, a task she took on with great success.

“She asks a lot of questions. She’s a deep thinker,” Carrión said. “Education is evolving; everything is changing. For her to always be thinking ahead, and that’s a big positive.”

Moreover, Carrión said, Davis is “a great human being, and she loves to be with students.”

Davis is still very much Henry’s principal — she was knee-deep in PSSAs this week, greeting students by name in the hallways, checking in with staff — but she plans to dive in at Central as soon as is practical, meeting staff, students, and parents, understanding as much as she can as quickly as she can. She knows she won’t be an expert in pedagogy the way she’s been in the K-8 world, but she’s eager to learn.

“I believe one of the most important leadership skills for any principal is your ability to listen to the school community,” said Davis. And she emphasized that work around diversity, equity and inclusion “is why I became a principal. It’s not an additional thing that I have to do; it’s why I do the work.”

School budgets are already set, as are incoming freshmen classes. Davis doesn’t yet have data on how the district’s new criteria-based admissions policy, designed to diversify Philadelphia’s top schools, shaped Central’s incoming ninth grade.

But she thinks the spirit of the new process, which shifted away from giving principals input into admissions to a lottery system for qualifying students — with preference given to those from select underrepresented neighborhoods at five schools, including Central — is a good one.

“In a lot of ways, I think it’s the right direction, as long as it’s employed in a way that’s truly equitable,” said Davis.

Going forward, Davis vowed to ensure Central conducts outreach in all neighborhoods to recruit future students. She also intends to focus on Central creating “communities for students where they have a sense of connection,” encouraging affinity groups, and translating what she hears students want and need into action.

Central’s network of alumni and supporters has been buzzing since her appointment, and Davis has already heard from many alumni, reaching out with congratulations and suggestions for how to move forward.

Joe Quinones, father of a current Central sophomore and incoming Central student and an organizer of a group of Central students, parents and alumni who pushed the district to appoint a Black principal, said when he heard of Davis’ selection, “I exhaled. We felt that a person of color as principal of what we consider the elite special-admit school in Philadelphia will be helpful in navigating new waters.”

Quinones hasn’t met Davis yet, but he likes what he’s heard, he said.

Davis promised to “continue to lead from my heart and keep the young people in our city as my inspiration. To me, it’s less about what Kate Davis as the singular person is going to do, and more about, ‘how do I make intentional moves to leverage the skill set, knowledge and expertise of the Central community.’”