A message from Interim Deputy Superintendent

June 26, 2012

Good afternoon,

As we close out the school year, I want to thank our principals, teachers and staff for your work this year. Looking forward, we have many new faces in leadership roles, including several interim principals who have been promoted to principal.

I want to thank our Executive Directors of Schools for working with the staff and community of each school to ensure we are hiring the most qualified instructional leaders, who are also the best fit for each school community.

Thank you also to the principals moving on, including retirees Susan McCloskey, Jodee Reed, Linda Robinson, Christina Morningstar and ElDoris Turner, and those transitioning to new opportunities, including Justin Baeder, Lisa Escobar and Susan Toth – we appreciate your service to our students and schools and wish you the best.

I want to thank Heather Swanson, who is leaving her post at Blaine for a year of traveling, for her role as PASS president. I also want to thank BiHoa Caldwell for stepping in last year and serving as TOPS principal.
 
Here is a roundup of our new principals:

• Jen Benkovitz will be the principal at Salmon Bay K-8 School. Dr. Benkovitz has been principal at Hillsborough Elementary School in Hillsborough, North Carolina. She brings more than 15 years of experience as an educator in North Carolina, serving in principal and assistant principal roles. Previously Ms. Benkovitz taught third through fifth grade at Oaklawn Elementary Magnet School of Math, Science and Technology.

• Chris Carter will be the principal at Asa Mercer Middle School. He comes to Mercer after serving as principal at Hamilton International Middle School since 2009. Previously, he was principal at SPS’s African American Academy and was assistant principal at Pacific Middle School in Highline. Mr. Carter, who began his teaching career in Long Beach, Calif., also taught and served as house administrator at Asa Mercer. He is delighted to be returning to Mercer as principal.

• Julie Cox will be the principal at Catharine Blaine K-8 School, where she has been serving as the interim assistant principal. Previously she served in many educational positions, most recently as literary coach at Hmong International Academy in Minneapolis. She has also been in leadership roles at schools in Mumbai, India; Amman, Jordan; and St. Paul, Minn. She was an elementary teacher at Viewlands Elementary from 1986-1993.

• Neil Gerrans is the new principal at Lawton Elementary School. Dr. Gerrans stepped into the role of interim principal in October after serving as the assistant principal. Prior to arriving at Lawton, he taught grades 1-4 in the Renton School District from 2003-2011. Before Dr. Gerrans went back to school to become a certified teacher, he worked at the management consulting firm of McKinsey & Company and was a research assistant in computational electromagnetics at Carnegie Mellon.
• Shauna Heath will be the principal at Lafayette Elementary School. She has been the principal at Sunrise Elementary in Kent for the past two years. Ms. Heath previously was assistant principal at Tillicum Middle School in Bellevue, an elementary principal in Tennessee and a middle school principal in Georgia. She also served as the pre-K through 5th grade instructional services director in Decatur, Georgia. Ms. Heath began her career as a special education teacher in Alaska and in the Shelton School District.

• Helen Joung is co-principal at Olympic Hills Elementary School, joining current principal Zoe Jenkins, who will move to half-time co-principal. Ms. Joung comes to Olympic Hills from Emerson Elementary in Everett, where she was assistant principal. Previously, she served as an educational assistant and building math coach in the Highline district, taught third grade in New Jersey, and was a clinical faculty member at Montclair State University.

• Chris Kinsey is the new principal at Chief Sealth International High School, after serving as interim principal since August 2011. Mr. Kinsey started his career in 1999 as a seventh-grade classroom teacher at Meany Middle School and also served as the dean and administrative intern for Pathways at Nathan Hale High School. He was the house administrator at Eckstein Middle School and an assistant principal at Cleveland High School, where he helped plan and implement the STEM program.

• Krista Bellamy-McClain is the new principal at Emerson Elementary, where she has been serving as interim principal since last July. Before coming to Emerson, Ms. Bellamy-McClain was an assistant principal at Denny International Middle School. Prior to her work at Denny, she was an elementary school principal and teacher in the Anchorage School District. She also served as a school director for a six-week summer school in inner city Los Angeles.

• Shannon McKinney is the principal at the new K-5 STEM School at Boren. She comes from Tucson, Ariz., where she was the turnaround principal for Hohokam Middle School. Dr. McKinney brings more than 22 years of educational experience, serving in two assistant principal roles in the Amphitheater School District in Tucson. Previously Dr. McKinney taught math to secondary students for 10 years, and she also served as Tucson’s mathematics coordinator.
 
• Laurie Morrison will be the principal at Graham Hill Elementary. She has been the assistant principal and director of Early Learning at South Shore PreK-8 since 2010. Dr. Morrison began her educational career as assistant director of K-12 Special Education at Northwest’s Child and has held positions with SPS in early learning, literacy and teaching as well as serving as an instructional coach for reading and a STAR mentor for the teacher induction program. She has also served as an adjunct faculty member for the teacher education program at the UW campuses in Bothell and Seattle. She earned a doctorate in education from the University of Washington.

• Chanda Oatis is the new principal at Alki Elementary, where she has been serving as interim principal since October 2011. Ms. Oatis came to Alki from Denny International Middle School, where she was an assistant principal. Ms. Oatis has also served as assistant principal/literacy coach, with training from the Teachers’ College Reading and Writing Project.
 
• Michelle Ota will be the principal at Viewlands Elementary School. She comes to Viewlands from Salmon Bay K-8, where she has been assistant principal since 2007. Ms. Ota has been with Seattle Public Schools since 1989, serving as a professional development coordinator and a STAR mentor. She has taught language arts/social studies at both TOPS and the Spectrum program at Washington Middle School.

• Katie Pearl will be the principal at B.F. Day Elementary School, moving from her post as assistant principal at Mercer Middle School. Ms. Pearl was also a house administrator at Mercer and has taught special education at both Mercer and at Briggs Elementary in the Bronx, New York.

• Sandra Powell will be the principal at Olympic View Elementary, after serving as assistant principal at Nathan Hale High School. Prior to coming to Seattle, Ms. Powell was principal at Doris M. Johnson High School of Law and Leadership in Baltimore, Md. She brings more than 15 years of education experience in Maryland, New York and the Peoples Republic of China, and she was a Fulbright Scholar in Turkey.

• Chris Scott will be the principal at TOPS K-8 School. Dr. Scott comes to TOPS from Raleigh, N.C., where he was the principal of a gifted and talented magnet school. Dr. Scott earned his doctorate from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he focused on social justice and equity in public education and conducted research addressing educational opportunities of American Indian students.

• Melissa Schweitzer will be the principal at Whittier Elementary, after serving as the assistant principal at Whitman Middle School. Ms. Schweitzer previously worked as an instructional coach for the district for three years and as a special education teacher at Meany Middle School for five years. She has also been a special education teacher at the Seattle Children’s Home.

• Po-Yuk Tang is the new principal at Van Asselt Elementary, where she has been interim principal since March. Prior to her appointment as interim principal, Ms. Tang served as assistant principal at Van Asselt for 12 years. Previously, she was the on-site summer school administrator and served an administrative internship at Tulalip Elementary. She began her career as a teacher at Tulalip Elementary in 2000, first teaching visual arts and then teaching on special assignment.

Welcome to our new principals! Our new Superintendent, José Banda, starts July 2 and we look forward to working together to ensure we have a successful 2012-13 school year. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy a safe and restful summer.

Sincerely,



Bob Boesché
Interim Deputy Superintendent
Seattle Public School

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