|
Updated June 17th, 2010
Hurley Named New
Palm Crest Principal
 Karen Hurley (right) was
named the new principal at
Palm Crest Elementary
School, as the LCUSD
Governing Board, headed by
President Jeanne Broberg
(left), unanimously approved
the appointment.
By ERIC NOLAND
The Outlook
Karen Hurley didn’t need a GPS
to find her way to La Cañada
Flintridge as the new principal at
Palm Crest Elementary School.
She had been in the district in a
cameo role just a few years ago,
when, as a literacy coach in the
Pasadena Unified School District,
she was invited to La Cañada
Elementary to teach a GATE (gifted and talented education) enrichment
French class.
“We put on a big French café
for the parents. It was a lot of fun,”
said Hurley, whose appointment
was approved by the La Cañada
Unified School District Governing
Board in a special meeting Tuesday
morning.
She replaces Anais Wenn, who
was promoted to principal of La Cañada High School 7/8 early this
month as part of a major district
shuffle.
French fluency comes naturally
to Hurley. She grew up in New
Brunswick and Quebec, Canada, the
daughter of a father who spoke
English and a mother who spoke
French. She learned both languages
from the get-go.
Palm Crest will mark Hurley’s
debut as a principal. For the past
seven years, she has been an assistant
principal in the Saugus Union
School District, working at Cedarcreek and Mountainview elementary
schools.
Being a principal represents a
big step up, she agreed, “because
everything ends with me.” She
added: “I need to really get to know
the school, the community and find
out what their needs are. And then
the big thing is building relationships
with the staff, the students, the
families and the community.”
At least one former co-worker
feels she’ll readily accomplish that.
“La Cañada’s gain is our loss,”
said Christine Hamlin, principal at
Mountainview, who has worked
closely with Hurley over the past
five years. “She’s just leaving a huge
hole here.”
This may be Hurley’s first stab
at a principal’s position, but Hamlin
says the administrative arrangement
at Mountainview — which has nearly
1,000 students — was valuable
preparation for the role. “One of the
things we’ve very self-consciously
done,” Hamlin said, “is we trade off
different parts of the load. She’s had
experience in every single area of
what it takes to run a school. The
only thing new, she’ll be responsible
for all of them at the same time.”
But that burden will be undertaken
at Palm Crest, which is about
half the size of Mountainview.
After getting a bachelor’s degree
at McGill University in Montreal,
Hurley worked for 10 years as a
teacher in Canada before moving to
Louisiana, where she taught immersion
French and earned a master of education degree in supervision and
administration at the University of
Louisiana at Lafayette (formerly the
University of Southwestern
Louisiana).
Her aspiration was to move out
of the classroom and into an administrative
position. “My father was a
principal,” she said. “My mother
was a teacher. All the kids are in
education. I knew I would follow in
my father’s footsteps.”
And now she will. “I’m thrilled
to be part of this district,” said
Hurley, who lives in South Pasadena
with her husband and two children.
“They have high standards. ... Every
single child counts. They really
have a good program in terms of
every child succeeding.”
Asked about Hurley’s professional
attributes, Mountainview’s
Hamlin said, “It’s a very long list. I
think she is very intuitive. She has a
great deal of common sense. She is
skilled — she knows how to create
and build relationships with people.
“She has a lot of insights into
how kids think, what’s behind their
actions, and has strong interpersonal
skills, both with kids and adults.”
Most of all, Hamlin added, “She
has a real warmth that makes you
feel connected to her.”
|
