Youngest Black woman to lead city school doesn’t let age deter mission

Laurena Tolson is bubbly, full of energy and is passionate about education. She’s also 29 and the principal of Cobb Creek’s Anderson Add B. Elementary School.

She’s the youngest African-American woman leading a school in the School District of Philadelphia and is entering her third year at the K-8 campus located at 1034 S. 60th St.

“I got hired four days after my 27th birthday,” said Tolson from her office earlier this week. “I didn’t think I would be a principal so early, but I knew that I wanted to make a career out of teaching.”

During the 2011-12 school year, the average age for principals in public schools was 48 years-old, according to a report released by the U.S. Department of Education in April 2016. For private schools, the average age was 51.

Zachary Duberstein, principal at Vare-Washington School on S. 5th St., is also 29 years-old and he is officially the youngest principal in the district.

Tolson began her career by teaching middle school special education at the former Young Scholars Frederick Douglass Charter School on West Norris St., now a Mastery school.

The first year she started teaching was in 2010, and she was fresh out of college. She quickly rose through the ranks and transitioned into a leadership role overseeing special education compliance, instruction and procedures.

“My uncle has down syndrome,” said Tolson, expressing her interest in special education. “My uncle, working with the Special Olympics, and I volunteered at Heston Elementary School and worked with the multiple disabilities class. I wanted to make sure they had a voice, were understood and had an advocate.”

On the other hand, she became frustrated with the over representation of — and lack of interventions for — Black and brown boys in special education classrooms and wanted to change the trajectory.

Even though she already had her bachelor’s degree in special education and elementary education from West Chester University, she decided to return to school and obtained her master’s degree in educational leadership from Temple University.

“I tell people it’s grace, hard work, being passionate, being clear on your purpose, never taking my faith off the track and my ancestors,” said Tolson of her job as principal. “People believed in me. I’m passionate about mentorship.”

When she was hired to lead at the school in 2015, she replaced another principal who was well-loved and ended up transitioning to another campus during the summer.

“People were not prepared for the change,” said Tolson, a graduate of the Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts. “He needed to be where he needed to be where his strengths utilized and I ended up here. I think the kids adjusted quicker.”

Tolson said she can relate to students because she understands the verbiage, emotions and insecurities students may be facing during their transitional years.

“She’s 29 and she knows what is going on,” said parent Gene Lett, who has two sons and a daughter enrolled at Anderson. “She is on top of what is going on in today’s world.”

Lett, a 1981 graduate of Anderson, said Tolson started off in the trenches.

“She is phenomenal,” he added. “She’s really involved with shaping and modeling the image that Anderson has.”

Everything hasn’t always been rosy though. When Tolson first started she says there was some push back because of her age.

“People didn’t think I had enough experience. People didn’t think I could do it because I came from a charter school and I was often mistaken for a student,” she said. “If I was 55 when I started out versus …

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