Booker Middle School Principal Reassigned

Booker Middle School Principal Joe Bazenas has been reassigned as an assistant principal at Booker High School, according to a school district news release.

Sarasota County Superintendent of Schools Lori White announced the change Monday and it is effective immediately.

According to the release, Assistant Principal LaShawn Houston-Frost has been named interim principal for the remainder of the school year.

Superintendent White said the administrative reorganization was necessary to improve the structure of the learning environment for students at Booker Middle, the release said.

The district did not elaborate further on the decision.

Bazenas, 46, has been with the Sarasota County Schools since 1996. He served as a counselor, teacher on special assignment and assistant principal at before being appointed interim principal at Booker Middle School during the 2006-2007 school year. He was named principal at Booker Middle in 2007.

Houston-Frost, 42, has been a counselor, teacher and administrator in the Sarasota County Schools for 15 years. She was a guidance counselor and taught employability skills at for nine years.  She served as an assistant principal at Venice High School for four years before assuming her current position at Booker Middle School in 2009.