Dr. Richard Dunlap
The Coatesville Area School District has a new leader — at least on an interim basis — Dr. Richard Dunlap has been tapped to take over the district after the resignation earlier this summer of Dr. Cathy Taschner.
The CASD board voted this week to hire Dunlap at a rate of $17,000 per month while the search for a new superintendent is conducted.
Dunlap has an extensive educational background in southeast Pennsylvania:
Dunlap served for 35 years in public education before joining CCRES in 2016 as an educational specialist. During his professional career, he served as a special education teacher, an assistant principal of a middle school, principal of a national award-winning middle school, a high school assistant principal, twelve years as a high school principal, and three years as the superintendent of a school district of over 13,000 students and 1,800 teachers and support staff. Over a span of nine years while teaching, Dunlap also coached football, softball, wrestling and track. His educational accomplishments include earning his Doctorate in Educational Leadership and a Master’s Degree in Bilingual/Bicultural Studies from Immaculata.
During his career, Dunlap has served on numerous strategic planning committees and was lead facilitator for several of them. During his tenure in public education he was responsible for several construction and renovation projects. As a middle school principal, he led the renovations and additions for Garnet Valley Middle School. While serving as a high school principal, he led the renovations and additions to the present-day configuration of West Chester East High School. Recently, as an educational specialist, he has supervised three separate construction projects for the Chester County Intermediate Unit and is currently providing consultation for two additional projects.
Dunlap has presented on both national and international levels on curriculum, leadership, and literacy as well as serving as a consultant to several school districts on the topics of curriculum mapping and aligning state standards to the curriculum.
He has published material in conjunction with Bena Kallick and Jeff Colosimo through Corwin Press, Using Curriculum Mapping & Assessment Data to Improve Learning and co-authored with Janet Hale, An Educational Leader’s Guide to Curriculum Mapping: Creating and Sustaining Collaborative Cultures.
Dunlap is a recipient of the Chaplin of Four Chaplin’s Award for providing outstanding community service.
Prior to pursuing a career in education, Dunlap served as an officer in the United States Marine Corps.
