By Kyle Coppola
Dr. Vanessa King Named New Principal at Eustis Heights Elementary
Dr. Vanessa King, the principal who guided Treadway Elementary School in Leesburg to a historic jump from a C to an A in Florida’s school accountability system, is leaving Treadway Elementary to become principal of Eustis Heights Elementary.
Luke Freeze has been named as King’s successor at Treadway, school officials announced.
Under Dr. King’s leadership, Treadway became the only traditional public school in Lake County to climb two full letter grades in a year, earning 85 points on the state’s scoring scale. The A rating reflected strong gains in English language arts, math, science and overall student learning growth.
“My goal has always been to create a space of safety, trust, and teamwork,” Dr. King says. “We are deeply committed to the well-being of our teachers. We want to be very nurturing. Being a teacher right now is not always the easiest thing so we make sure to put things in place to make them excited to come to school.”
Dr. King, who refers to herself as the school’s “Mama Bear,” emphasized collaboration and support. “I tell my teachers all the time, I am a teacher first. I don’t ever want to forget I was there. If they have any questions we work on things together. It’s an open and honest program,” she says.
A veteran educator with 23 years in the field, including 22 in Lake County, Dr. King previously taught third through fifth grades and served as an intervention teacher and curriculum resource teacher at Clermont Elementary. She joined Treadway as assistant principal eight years ago before becoming principal.
A graduate of Florida A&M University, Dr. King earned her master’s, specialist and doctorate degrees from the American College of Education. Her honors include multiple Teacher of the Year awards, the Lake County Superintendent Achievement Award and recognition as a High Impact Teacher for four consecutive years.
Beyond academics, Dr. King brought energy to the school community as a former competitive athlete who played volleyball and soccer and ran track at a national level. She often incorporates music and movement into the school day to keep students engaged.
“I just want to say Treadway is one team with one dream and one goal, we maximized the schools potential,” she says.
As a mother of three, Dr. King’s nurturing approach shaped the school culture, which teachers, parents and students credited with helping the school exceed expectations.
Now Dr. King will look to lead Eustis Heights Elementary to similar levels of success.
Kyle Coppola was born in Newton, Massachusetts and received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Communications from Curry College in 2016. After traveling to Florida on a family vacation, he decided he could not get enough of the warm weather and made the move from snowy Massachusetts to central Florida 8 years ago.
For the last decade Kyle has gained valuable experience in social media content creation, marketing and sales, writing, video production, sports announcing and even broadcasting for local radio stations, such as FM 102.9 in The Villages and FM 91.5 in Massachusetts. Every year he volunteers at The Villages Charter High School as a play-by-play sports announcer for the football games as well as a public address announcer for the basketball games, including the annual Battle at The Villages Tournament.
Outside the office Kyle is a husband and father to two beautiful girls along with their cat. In his spare time he likes to spend time with his family, travel, play golf and swim. He is also a huge sports junkie and even bigger motorsports fan and loves to attend racing events when he can.
