Teamwork at Deal: Team Administration The members of Deal’s administrative team come from many different backgrounds, but they have one thing in common – they all love working with middle school students.
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Manuel Dacoba is one of three assistant principals at Deal. Known by many as “Mr. Mo  dernization,” Mr. Dacoba is the point person for Deal's facility and technology issues. With more than twenty years of service at Deal, Mr. Dacoba taught graphic arts and computer assisted design before becoming an assistant principal. Mr. Dacoba is the assistant principal for the 8th grade. The primary duties of the assistant principals are academic coordination. They also provide oversight of the classroom teachers, observing the teachers in action and conducting teacher assessments. |
Diedre Neal is Deal’s assistant principal for the 6th grade. She came to Deal last year after serving as principal of  Backus Middle School for two years and assistant principal at H.D. Woodson High School for two years before that. It seems only natural that Ms. Neal moved from Backus to Deal. The school’s namesake – Ms. Bertie Backus – was also Deal’s very first principal back in 1931! A native Washingtonian and graduate of Banneker High School, Ms. Neal has also been a middle school math teacher. Like the counselors, she will stay with the same group of students and serve the 7th grade next year. |
Deal’s new 7th grade assistant principal is Clarence Humes. Mr. Humes spent the last eight years at the Capitol Hill  Cluster Schools, where he was a teacher, dean of students and then assistant principal for Stuart-Hobson Middle School. He first met Dr. Kim when she was a New Leaders intern at his school. Mr. Humes helped create the new disciplinary policy for the Deal Handbook. |
Joyce Brooks started worked at Deal 16 years ago as a special education teacher for math. Now Deal’s  specialeducation coordinator, Ms. Brooks coordinates the delivery of special education services and serves as a resource and support to the new special education classroom teachers. Ms. Brooks enjoys working with general education teachers and students at the very early “pre-intervention” stages, looking for ways to help students before they are screened for learning differences. |
Deal’s IB coordinator is James Albright. Mr. Albright came to Deal last year from the Fairfax County Public Schools,  where he was a special education teacher and IB coordinator at a middle school. A graduate of an IB program in Indonesia, Mr. Albright likes the IB Middle Years Program with its focus on skills and strategies for students to be successful. At lunchtime, you’ll find Mr. Albright working with students in the ZAP classroom. ZAP means “zeros aren’t permitted” and the lunch program is a time for students to work with Deal staff to make up missing or incomplete assignments. Mr. Albright looks forward to getting Deal’s final approval as an IB school later this year. |
David Sheldon, the Dean of Students, is primarily concerned with getting to know the students, families, and  staff at Deal and making their experience here as rewarding as possible. A Washington native with ten years experience working in DC schools he really wants to enhance school spirit by getting students involved in activities outside of their comfort zones. He’s also the one to contact if you have questions about the school’s extra curricular activities. |
Front Office Team If you call or visit Deal, the first person to greet you is probably Patricia Edwards. As front desk clerk, |
Right next to Ms. Edwards is Deal’s latest member of the Front Office Team, Caneisha Mills. A native of North  Carolina, Ms. Mills came to DC to attend Howard University, where she got her degree in Political Science and History. As Deal’s administrative aide, she is responsible for attendance records. When your child has a note after being absent, the student should turn it in to Ms. Mills after getting it signed by his/her teachers. |
If you want to schedule a meeting with Ms. Kim, Rosalyn Baxter is the one to call. Ms. Baxter is the school’s  administrative assistant, and handles Ms. Kim’s schedule, grade and report card recordkeeping, student registration, and attendance problems. Ms. Baxter is in her fourth year at Deal. |
Almost all financial matters fall under the purview of Margo Streeter. As Deal’s business manager, all procurements, |
Library Media Center Team The Library Media Center Team is brand new this year, starting fresh in a new space after being out of service Both Mrs. Brown and Mrs. Allen say they like the relationship between the classroom teachers and the library media specialists at Deal. Unlike most elementary schools, where students attend library as a “special,” without their classroom teacher, at Deal they truly team teach with the classroom teachers who bring their students to the LMC to use the Computer Room or the other LMC resources. |
Melissa Kim arrived as Deal’s principal five years ago and says this year everything came together just in time to welcome the new 6th graders. Dr. Kim started as a 4th and 5th grade teacher and has worked in other DC Public schools and in Arlington. Every year she’s been at Deal has been better than the last, and she looks forward to this year with a completely modernized middle school serving 6th, 7th, and 8th graders. 
Ms. Edwards answers the phone, greets visitors, hands out bus token forms, and fills in where ever she is needed. A Washington native who has worked more than 20 years at Deal, Ms. Edwards frequently runs into former Deal students around town.
personnel papers and school lunch applications must pass through her hands. In her 25th year at Deal, Ms. Streeter is also the person to see to get the pink student ID cards that are necessary to get monthly Metro passes.
during Deal’s reconstruction. Although new to the LMC, both staffers are veteran librarians and familiar faces as Deal parents. Library Media Specialist Pat Brown comes to Deal from Janney Elementary, where she started as a library volunteer and became a full-fledged library media specialist after winning a spot in a special DC program to get her master’s degree in library science at the University of Maryland. Assistant Library Media Specialist Julie Allen brings 20 years of library experience, including ten years working in elementary schools throughout DCPS to set up and upgrade their libraries. They both started in July unpacking the books that had been boxed up for three years and cataloging the 2000 books that had never been entered into the online catalog. This fall they are identifying books to add to the collection and placing orders with funds received from a local ANC.