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Hood River News Editorial
September 6, 2006
Some interesting changes await students at schools in Hood River
County this week when the 2006-07 year begins.
Only one school in all of Hood River County School District sees no
change in administration this year.
Meanwhile, at Horizon Christian, the staff has moved part of its
campus from Valley Christian Church to new quarters in Assembly of God
church, while waiting for completion of its new campus at Eighth and
Pacific.
Students at May Street, Westside, Pine Grove, Parkdale and Cascade
Locks schools will see new principals this year, though all are
familiar faces in the district. Mid Valley’s Dennis McCauley returns
for his third year as principal, in the only school without a change.
Dan Patton moves to Westside, replacing Terri Vann, who is now an
assistant superintendent with the district. Martha Capovilla has
retired at Hood River Valley High School, leaving Steve Fisk as sole
principal after a three-year partnership with Capovilla. Brent Emmons
returns as vice-principal, and new to the school this year is Karen
Neitzel, also a vice-principal.
Kim Vogel returns to the district to serve as Parkdale principal, and
Kelly Beard, former Special Education Coordinator, takes on the
principal job at Pine Grove. Susan Henness moves to May Street from
Hood River Middle School, where she is replaced by Chris Daniels, who
had been Cascade Locks principal. He is succeeded by longtime district
educator Ed Drew, who had been Wy’east principal for many years.
Wy’east’s Catherine Dalbey moves up from vice-principal to succeed
Drew, and Wy’east’s Gus Hedberg moves from teaching Spanish to
assisting Dalbey.
It looks like a dizzying series of shifts, but is really a fitting
rearrangement of people to educational roles.
But serving new students and working with a different staff in a new
place carries challenges for even the most veteran and adept
administrator. We wish all the school leaders, as well as their staff,
the district administrators, parents, and most of all, students, a
productive, creative, imaginative year.
In the words of Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget:
“The goal of education in the schools should be creating people who
are capable of doing new things, not simply repeating what other
generations have done; men and women who are creative, inventive and
discoverers, who can be critical and verify, and not accept,
everything they are offered.” |
