After serving as the principal at Tomlin Middle School since 2009, Durrance will return to PCHS as their newest principal.
Following Susan Sullivan’s announcement that she will be retiring at the conclusion of the 2022-2023 school year, her eighth year of service as the principal at Plant City High School, the school has announced that Traci Durrance will be named the newest principal at PCHS.
Sullivan began her career as an instructor at PCHS and also taught at Marshall Middle School before returning to PCHS as a guidance counselor in 1998, serving as a guidance and career counselor until 2001 when she departed to join Tomlin Middle School as an administrator. She was promoted to principal at Tomlin in 2008, a role she held until 2015 when she once again made her way back to PCHS as principal.
In her time at Plant City as a teacher, an administrator and a principal, Sullivan highlighted the support that the school always received from the local community. And as principal, she says that she’s most proud of their graduation rate, a number that has jumped 10 points in her tenure, the five state championships that the Raiders have won under her watch, the brand new turf football field that was installed last summer, the establishment of a business advisory board that has helped open the door for students to transition into the work force and the Raider Champions Foundation — an organization that has worked to build a partnership between the school and its community donors.
Sullivan says that it’s a bittersweet feeling to leave Plant City, with the love she has for the students, but that she’s ready to have the opportunity to travel and spend time with her children and grandchildren that no longer live in Plant City — while still having the opportunity to make it back to campus or to sporting events to cheer on the Raiders at any time.
For Durrance, her new position at Plant City is a bit of a homecoming as well. Durrance originally served as an instructor at Tomlin from 1993 to 2006 before joining Plant City’s staff as a resource teacher in 2007. In 2009 she was named the assistant principal for administration and athletic director at PCHS before taking over as principal at Tomlin in 2014 — a role she has served since.
Durrance’s appointment as principal continues a community-centric approach to Plant City’s administration, with both Sullivan and Durrance being fellow graduates of PCHS themselves — along with Sullivan adding that her parents, her husband and her children all attended PCHS themselves.
“I think that’s something that is unique to Plant City. In fact, four of my five administrators graduated from Plant City as well,” Sullivan said. “We are probably the only true community school left in the area. In Tampa there are a ton of schools and in Brandon now you’ve got Bloomingdale and Newsome and Riverview and Armwood but they aren’t really in the heart of a community. And even though Durant and Strawberry Crest are in the Plant City area, they aren’t in the center of the city limits like Plant City is. People drive by our school every day on the way to work, or on their way home, or going to the grocery store. In their daily life, they drive by our school. I think it’s unique that we’re the one school within the city limits and I still think that it’s truly considered Plant City’s school. I know the community supports Durant and Strawberry Crest but I think that we get so much support because we’re right here in the middle of everything.”
