“I always loved school,” said Anna Harwood, the new head administrator at Abingdon Elementary School. A Gloucester native, Harwood attended Abingdon as a child when Bernard Robins was the principal there.

After graduating from Gloucester High School, Harwood began her undergraduate studies in psychology at Christopher Newport University. “I decided I wanted to help children before they had problems,” she said, and pursued her master’s degree in early childhood education at Old Dominion University. She also holds a degree in education administration from George Washington University.

Harwood taught at Achilles Elementary for three years prior to a 14-year stint at Bethel Elementary. She was an assistant administrator at Botetourt Elementary for a year before moving to Petsworth where she was the assistant principal for the past four years.

Harwood said there was a learning curve involved in switching from classroom teaching to administration. “As a...