Source: Coronado Unified School District
Coronado Unified School District will begin the new school year in August with some familiar faces in new leadership positions as the district reorganizes resources to best serve the current needs of the district.
Coronado Middle School Program Specialist Brooke Barto has been named as the new CMS Assistant Principal. She will replace Nestor Espinoza who announced that he accepted a position as an elementary school administrator in another district. Barto has been with the district for the past seven years as an education specialist, English and math teacher, and most recently as the CMS Program Specialist, a position that the district eliminated this past spring due to budget cuts. In addition to her administrative duties, Barto will also assume some of her former program specialist responsibilities.
Village Elementary Assistant Principal Tanya White will move to the district office as an Administrator on Special Assignment. White, who has been the AP at Village for eight years, will bring her strengths and commitment in providing much needed district-wide support with student discipline and special education, as well as administrative support at CMS and Silver Strand where program specialist positions have been cut. Additionally, White will support English as a Second Language (ESL) programs such as the State Seal of Biliteracy and EL testing coordination from Julia Braga who has been selected as the new Village Elementary Assistant Principal.
Braga, a Coronado native and CHS graduate whose three children attended Village, has served as the district’s English Language Arts & EL Development Teacher on Special Assignment since 2016. She will join Principal Peter Kuhns and Program Specialist Alison Keehan on the administrative team at Village Elementary.
Keehan will come from Silver Strand to join the Village team. She has been in the district for eleven years as a secondary education specialist, assistant principal at CMS, and most recently as a program specialist at Silver Strand (a position that was eliminated due to budget cuts). Keehan will bring her extensive experience in administration, special education, and student discipline to serve a demographic at Village that is more than double the size of her previous responsibility.
Administrative changes at Coronado High School include the resignation of Assistant Principal Rikki Betancourt, who is moving out of state for family reasons. The AP position has not yet been filled. Additionally, the district Special Education Coordinator, Ryan Keller, will move to CHS to support the special education team and students, and rotate as a district (LEA) representative in IEP meetings. Though Keller’s primary location will be at CHS, he will continue to provide district-wide special education support.
“We are excited about the administrative changes ahead for next year and look forward to bringing fresh perspectives to some of our most important positions. We look critically at staffing every summer as an opportunity to be more efficient and adapt to changing realities in district needs, demographics, and finances. We are fortunate and grateful that we have skilled and experienced educators within the district and were able to fill the positions with our current staff. With our budget challenges, it is important to note that these changes reflect previously reported staffing reductions and are cost neutral to the district,” said CUSD Superintendent Karl Mueller.
Source: Coronado Unified School District
