SLO County district is getting 7 new principals next school year — including a SLO native
Some big changes are coming to a local San Luis Obispo County school district.
More than half of San Luis Coastal Unified School District’s principals will be new next school year, and several other top administration and school staff are either leaving the district or beginning new positions within it.
“Usually people see all this movement and they wonder if it’s something bad that’s happening,” said Christin Newlon, who is retiring as the district’s director of human resources. “But the district has been stable for so many years; this is actually really refreshing and exciting.”
The district is currently looking to hire new principals at Del Mar Elementary School in Morro Bay, Monarch Grove Elementary School in Los Osos and Bishop’s Peak, Hawthorne and Pacheco elementary schools in San Luis Obispo, as well as a new assistant principal at Laguna Middle School in San Luis Obispo.
Two new principals will start at Morro Bay and San Luis Obispo high schools for the 2021-22 school year.
The district has selected Scott Schalde, assistant principal of Laguna Middle School, to head Morro Bay high school. He replaces Kyle Pruitt, who will teach in the district’s independent study program.
Rollin Dickinson, a principal at Lake Oswego High School in Oregon, will be the new principal at San Luis Obispo High School at the start of the next school year.
“Having grown up in SLO and graduated from San Luis Obispo High School, I feel deep gratitude for our district,” Dickinson wrote in an email to The Tribune. “That gratitude, and the awareness of how positive and powerful a high-quality education can be, has permeated my experiences as an English teacher in California, North Carolina and Oregon, and my work as an assistant principal and principal in Oregon as well. The homecoming sure feels sweet.”
Newlon told The Tribune that Dickinson has been touted as “the best principal in Oregon.”
Kimberly McGrath, the current assistant superintendent of educational services, will leave the school district at the end of the school year.
She has taken a job as superintendent of Reed Union Elementary School District in Belvedere Tiburon in the Bay Area.
McGrath has been a San Luis Obispo County educator for the past 13 years. She got her start in the Atascadero Unified School District before moving to San Luis Coastal Unified School District about seven years ago.
She accepted the position of superintendent at the Bay Area elementary school district because “it is also an incredibly supportive community and high-functioning school district,” she wrote in an email to The Tribune.
McGrath’s position will be filled by Diane Frost, the school district’s executive director for student support services, for the next two years before Frost retires.
Janet Gould, the principal of Del Mar Elementary School, will take over Frost’s position.
Other top school district officials leaving include Newlon and Sally Ames, the coordinator of San Luis Coastal Adult School.
Newlon will be replaced by Dan Block, who is the current principal at Bishop’s Peak Elementary School. The position vacated by Ames, who is retiring, will shift to become the director of secondary instruction services, learning and achievement.
Leslie O’Connor, the principal at San Luis Obispo High School, will serve in that position starting next school year.
Chris Jones, the principal at Pacheco Elementary School, will be a teacher at Laguna Middle School in the fall, and Lara Storm, one of the principals at Monarch Grove Elementary School, will be working on intervention programs in the district office.
The other principal at Monarch Grove elementary, Shelly King, will work in the classroom for the next school year.
James McMillen, principal of Hawthorne Elementary School, is transferring to Los Ranchos Elementary School in San Luis Obispo.
District Superintendent Eric Prater said he’s interviewed several candidates for the new elementary school principal and middle school assistant principal job, which he hopes to begin announcing this week and have all the positions filled by mid-May.
It’s been a challenging process during an exhausting year, but he’s excited for what is to come, Prater added.
“This is all bittersweet,” Prater said. “The bitter part is losing some to retirement, to transitions and to new professional opportunities. I’m losing some dear friends and great educators.
“On the other hand, we’re breathing new energy and new ideas into the district. And hopefully, some more diverse members of our community can come in to these leadership roles.”
This story was originally published May 3, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
CORRECTION: This article was updated to correctly identify where Chris Jones currently works, which is Pacheco Elementary School, not Monarch Grove Elementary School.
