Matthew Hunt will succeed Emmet Alexander as principal of Northern High School, effective August 1.

Before beginning his teaching career, Hunt enjoyed the opportunity to play basketball professionally in Europe and work in finance in Boston, MA.

Hunt led Glenn Elementary School for five years before accepting the role at Northern, where he served previously. He began his DPS teaching career at Northern in 2005, and for the next 11 years, he served as a mathematics teacher, basketball coach, assistant principal, and principal.

While at Northern, he was named DPS Teacher of the Year, DPS Principal of the Year, and N.C. Regional Principal of the Year.

While serving as principal at Northern, Merrick-Moore, and Glenn, his teams and students have achieved 12 consecutive years of proficiency gains and positive growth indices. In addition, all three schools achieved teacher working condition survey results above state and district averages annually, teacher retention increases, and student suspension declines.

Most recently at Glenn, his team and students doubled the EOG proficiency rate over five years, tripled ACCESS rates, decreased the chronically absent student rate from 52% to 14%, and achieved a 100% “good place to work and learn” rate on the most recent teacher working conditions survey.

Hunt earned degrees from Williams College, Harvard University, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

“I’d like to thank every Glenn student, teacher, and family member for a magical five years. Your kindness, hard work, and belief in each other inspired me to try to get better every day," Hunt said. "While I’ll miss the Glenn students and teammates tremendously, I’m so excited to reunite with the Northern High School community. My relationships and time at Northern informed so much of what I believe is possible for realizing student outcomes and dreams – as well as the power of a team. I can’t wait to start the work where I began as a teacher more than two decades ago.”