Melissa Emerson is pictured.

Melissa Emerson, a longtime Jamestown Public Schools administrator, will serve as principal of the Innovation Center at R.R. Rogers School, 41 Hebner St.

At the Innovation Center, Emerson will help oversee the development of the center’s programs as well as the classroom space that will be temporarily occupied by students and staff from M.J. Fletcher Elementary School.

“Mrs. Emerson’s experience as a principal will be an asset to the growth and development of the Innovation Center,” said Tina Sandstrom, Jamestown Public Schools assistant superintendent for instruction and improvement. “We look forward to her leadership as the programs and plans for this project evolve over the next year.”

Emerson just completed her 16th school year as principal of Washington Middle School. She began her career in 1992 as a math teacher at Persell Middle School before working as a teacher on special assignment to help with school improvement at Jefferson Middle School. Prior to becoming principal at Washington, she also served as an assistant principal at Jamestown High School.

“I look forward to working and collaborating with district officials, parents, and community members to make the Innovation Center a place for students to learn and thrive,” said Emerson. “I also look forward to working with the Fletcher students and staff during this temporary relocation.”

School district officials recently announced the first phase of a planned reopening of the Innovation Center, located in the former Rogers Elementary School building, beginning in September. The building will temporarily host three classrooms of students from Fletcher Elementary School for the duration of the 2023-24 school year, due to capital project work that will impact the school’s instructional space. Phase Three of the center’s opening will include career and technical education programming that is slated to begin during the 2024-25 school year.

First opened as the second incarnation of R.R. Rogers Elementary School in 1976, the building closed as a full-time elementary school in 2013. Since then, it has housed several programs including the Success Academy program in 2019 and the T.E.A.M. program until the 2022-23 school year.