BY KELLIE GILE
Walnut – The Walnut Valley Unified School District Board of Trustees has approved the following administrative positions for the 2014-2015 school year. Congratulations to the following team members!
- Sergio Canal is the new Director of Pupil Personnel Services/Secondary Education in the Educational Services Division. Canal brings 18 years of expertise in the K-12 educational system. Most recently, he served as principal at Nogales High School. He has also been an elementary teacher, middle school assistant principal, and a high school administrator.
David Suarez was approved as Director of Maintenance, Operations, Transportation and Facilities. Suarez comes highly recommended and brings a wealth of experience and leadership to the District. For the past five years, he supervised over 300 employees as director of maintenance at Foothill Transit. Suarez is also a retired Air Force E-7 Technical Sergeant and served our country for 20 years.
Jeanette Koh is the new principal at Quail Summit Elementary School. Koh brings 22 years of experience in education to her new post and she has been in Walnut Valley for the past 18 years. Last year, Koh served as Assistant Principal at Suzanne Middle School. Previously she was the Title I Coordinator at Vejar Elementary and a teacher at Maple Hill Elementary. Koh is the GLAD (Guided Language Acquisition Design) trainer for the district and was honored as the Outstanding Contributor to Literacy by The American Literacy Corporation. She spent 19 years as a teacher and earned the prestigious National Board Certification.
- Resma Chamadia-Byrne has been approved as the new principal at Castle Rock Elementary School. She brings 19 years of experience in several school districts including Pasadena Unified, Ontario-Montclair, and Corona-Norco. Chamadia-Byrne has taught several grade levels, served as a teacher on special assignment, and worked with various school programs and parent groups, and most recently served as assistant principal for one of the largest elementary schools in Southern California serving nearly 1,800 TK-6th Grade students on a multi-track calendar.
Jennifer Alcazar is the new Assistant Principal at Chaparral Middle School. For the last three years Alcazar has implemented technology with staff and students as a Technology Coach at Chaparral. Jen has been a science teacher for 19 years, with ten of those years at Chaparral. Alcazar has been implementing professional development for the past decade through the University of California, Irvine.
Amy Smith has been approved as the new Assistant Principal at Suzanne Middle School. For the past four years, Smith was a teacher at Vejar Elementary School. She has taught at several schools during her career, including Quail Summit Elementary. Amy began her career as a middle school teacher and brings 14 years in education to her new post.
