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Three new principals have been appointed by the Palo Alto school board to begin the new positions this July.
Jacqueline McEvoy, principal of San Mateo High School, will become the new head of Palo Alto High School. Mike O’Neill will become the principal at Juana Briones Elementary School and Lisa Marie Gonazeles will take over at Fairmeadow Elementary School.
The votes were unanimous.
“How fortunate we are to have such a high-quality group of people starting,” board member Mandy Lowell said.
“Very exciting,” said Dana Tom, board vice-president.
McEvoy most recently served seven years as principal of San Mateo High School. She has her doctorate in education-organization leadership from the University of San Francisco; a master’s degree in public administration from Notre Dame De Namur University, Belmont; and a bachelor’s in biological sciences from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
The new Paly principal began her education career as a teacher of biology, chemistry and physics at Bishop Garcia Diego High School, Santa Barbara. She later taught physics and calculus at Notre Dame High School, Belmont. In 1994, McEvoy was appointed principal of Peninsula High School in the San Mateo Union High School District, where she served for three years. She then became the director of Alternate Education for three years.
O’Neill most recently served as the interim assistant principal at Terman Middle School for the 2006-07 school year. He has two master’s degrees in elementary education from Boston University and education administration from Santa Clara University respectively, and a bachelor’s in psychology and legal services from the University of Massachusetts.
His teaching career with the Palo Alto Unified School District began in 2000 at Walter Hays Elementary School, where he taught fourth and fifth grades.
Gonzales most recently served as principal at Los Alamitos and Bachrodt Academy in the San Jose Unified School District for five years. She earned a doctorate in education-organizational leadership from the University of La Verne; a master’s in education leadership from San Jose State University; and two bachelor’s degrees in business management and radio/TV/film production from San Jose State University.
Before becoming principal, she taught in the Jefferson Elementary School District in Daly City starting in 1993. In 2002-03 she was appointed an elementary principal with San Jose Unified.
She also served as the curriculum director for the NASA Ames Research Center for two years.
All three will begin their new positions July 1.
Anyone got any comments on these three. I would prefer to hear positive comments rather than anything else.
If I’m not mistaken, this is the first time in over five years that a principal has been appointed from outside the district, except for Judith Barranti at Fairmeadow, who was a friend of Superintendent Callan’s.
I think it speaks well of Kevin Skelly that we are able to once again attract highly qualified people from other districts, bringing with them new energy, enthusiasm and ideas.
Sound good to me! I have only heard of O’Neil, and only good stuff, like warm, friendly, in touch, easy to talk to.
What happened with the principal’s position at Duveneck? No principal yet to replace the one who is leaving? Anybody know?
I heard from a friend who used to teach in San Mateo that she personally would love to work with McEvoy, who will stand firm and take charge, not be pushed around, support her teachers, and also is a great principal in general. Yay for the right direction. These appointments do seem to show that the District is turning toward the right direction with Skelly coming in. Not a moment too soon.
I spoke with an involved parent of a recent graduate of San Mateo High. She said Paly’s new principal is a strong leader who will run a tight ship. As the parent of a son at Paly, I have often felt that Paly needs a stronger, more active principal with a vision, someone who sees the need to facilitate better communication (the lack of which is a common complaint among parents).