An accelerated charter school for fifth and sixth graders will be established on the Cook Middle School campus next fall when Patricia Turner takes over the job of principal.

Turner, who is currently principal at Burbank Elementary School, will move over to Cook on April 5 to work with outgoing principal Harriet Gray until the end of the school year, said Santa Rosa School District Superintendent Sharon Liddell.

Gray is retiring after 38 years with the district.

Turner was principal at Burbank when that elementary campus exited federal Program Improvement sanctions at a time when a record number of Sonoma County schools fell in.

Cook is in Year 5 of Program Improvement, but Liddell said Monday that Gray could have stayed on as principal next year had she chosen to.

“Harriet decided to retire this year after 38 years of wonderful service to our community,” Liddell said. “We can take advantage of this and put a new administrator in and that will put us in line with what is required of the leadership plan.”

Kris Cosca, district director of curriculum and student support services, will take over at Burbank until a permanent replacement is found.

Gray began her career with the district in 1971 as an English teacher at Comstock.

She was there for 24 years before becoming an assistant principal at the newly established Elsie Allen High in 1995. She became principal at Cook in 2002 and under her leadership the wildly popular Blue and Gray Ball was established