Red Clay's unanimously approved a recommendation to rename Highlands Elementary School to Joseph E. Johnson Elementary School, in honor of Red Clay's first superintendent, Joseph E. Johnson, Ed.D.  The change is effective July 1, 2022.  There will be an official ceremony in the spring. 

The request to name the school after Dr. Johnson was submitted by a community member and reviewed by the district's Renaming Committee, which is comprised of Dorrell Green, Superintendent; Ted Ammann, Assistant Superintendent for District Operations; Chrishaun Fitzgerald, principal of Highlands Elementary School; Pia Cooper, school counselor and RCEA representative; Erin NeCastro, Director of Elementary Schools; and parent representative Brittany Winder.

Dr. Johnson grew up in Wilmington. After attending college, serving in the military and working in surrounding states, he returned to Delaware. His first administrative position was at Warner when it was a junior high school. He was the superintendent of New Castle County public schools. In 1981, as the New Castle County School District was split, Dr. Johnson was named the first superintendent of the Red Clay Consolidated School District. He testified in the famous Evans V. Buchanan case where he exposed deficiencies in the de facto segregation of Delaware school districts.