Inside our schools: New school year brings new teachers, administrators
With the start of 2007-08 classes, several Spokane Valley schools have welcomed new principals and other administrators.
Among them, Mark Purvine has taken the reigns as principal of East Valley Middle School, replacing Doris Hoffman, who retired. Purvine spent the past five years as an East Valley High School assistant principal and prior to that was an EVMS assistant principal for three years.
“This is homecoming for me, said Purvine. “I am absolutely thrilled to be here.”
Purvine said EVMS, with about 500 students – the district’s second middle school along with Mountain View – has solid approaches in place that work well, such as team teaching and the blocking of students.
“I couldn’t be happier working with the staff in place and with the programs they have put in place here. We have a group of teachers who are well connected to the community and to the students they serve.”
Purvine, who grew up in Oregon, first worked at EVMS around 1999. Previously, he was a middle school teacher in the Beaverton, Ore., area for eight years and then at Salk Middle School in Spokane for five years.
The East Valley district had other administrative changes for 2007-08.
Suzanne Savall began the year as interim principal at Otis Orchards Elementary, following Mike VanMatre’s retirement. She has worked as a teacher at Otis for 25 years and recently completed her administrative internship.
Kyle Rydell is Trent Elementary’s new principal, leaving his four-year post as an assistant principal at EVMS. At Trent, he replaces Anali Weatherhead, who left following reduction-in-force notification this past spring due to a district budget shortfall.
Tammy Fuller, who has served as an Otis Orchard’s principal and as an assistant principal Mountain View, is now an assistant principal at EVHS. She has been with the district for eight years.
The Central Valley School District also welcomed several new faces.
Jeff Dufresne joins Adams Elementary as principal, replacing Phyllis Betts, who retired. He most recently held a principal assistant position at Holmes Elementary and was a teacher in Spokane Public Schools for 10 years.
Kevin Longworth is the new McDonald Elementary principal and replaces Kelly Shea, who took another position in Mead School District. Longworth formerly was principal of Paramount Park School (K-8) in Los Angeles County for four years and was a teacher for seven years before serving as assistant principal – all in California.
Jesse Hardt comes to Horizon Middle School as principal and replaces Denis Rusca, who retired. Hardt was an assistant principal for three years at Shaw Middle School and an elementary teacher in Creston for five years. He spent the past six years working in Spokane Public Schools.
At Liberty Lake Elementary, Shelly Bajadali, assistant principal, replaces Rick Markealli, who returned to teaching. Bajadali was a half-time assistant principal at North Pines Middle School and worked half-time in district staff development, math assessment. Previously, Bajadali also was a North Pines counselor.
At Central Valley High School, Brandon Deyarmin, assistant principal, replaces Glenna Bouge who retired. He recently was a CVHS dean of students and teacher. Deyarmin has taught special education and regular education history as well as coaching boys and girls varsity soccer.
Additionally, the Central Valley district has four new training/administrative positions – called principal assistants – in schools with larger student enrollment, but not high enough to justify a full-time assistant principal. The principal assistants are involved with staff evaluations, training and instructional coaching, budget management, program development, student discipline, and parent and community communications.
The new CV principal assistants and their schools are: Greenacres Elementary – Heather Awbery, former CV kindergarten teacher since 2001; Sunrise Elementary – Susan Rasmussen, arriving from Spokane Public Schools after nearly 20 years of elementary level teaching and serving recently as Grant Elementary’s principal assistant; Horizon Middle School – Janice Boyd, a Central Valley teacher since 1987 including most recently seventh-grade math at Greenacres Middle School; North Pines Middle School – Monika Hawkinson, coming from the Deer Park School District and with 10 years of teaching experience in Washington and Oregon schools.
The West Valley School District saw just a few changes. Robyn Davis left West Valley High School as academy principal and is now principal at Pasadena Park. Dusty Andres left Contract Based Education as assistant principal and is now principal at West Valley City School, and Julie Poage is new to West Valley as academy principal at WVHS.
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East Valley High School’s 2007 yearbook staff earned a “Gallery of Excellence” Award, as a top yearbook published by Walsworth Publishing Company.
The yearbook’s theme, “define,” was carried throughout the book’s design, focusing on how students are defined throughout the day by the classes they take, their clubs and activities, and through friends and sports. Throughout the book, unique words were defined with pictures, and in the senior section, Class of 2007 members defined themselves with three words.
The yearbook’s staff was led by editor-in-chief Kylie Davis and assistant editor-in-chief Casi Anderson.
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Three University High School students attended a national technology conference in Nashville in June. Chris Maeng, Caleb Palmquist and Erick Stirtz qualified to compete at the 29th annual Technology Student Association National Conference in the events of Technology Problem Solving, Technology Bowl, Structural Engineering and Transportation Modeling.
At the national event, Maeng finished fifth in the Transportation Modeling category. He designed a modern sports car based on the 1970 Dodge Challenger, complete with technical sketches, digital photos and clay and balsa models.
This past March, Palmquist and Stirtz placed first in the state for Technology Problem Solving at the State of Washington TSA Conference.