The Snoqualmie Valley School District announced some big administrative changes for the 2019-20 school year – the year rebuilt Mount Si High School opens and the district’s Freshman Campus transitions back to Snoqualmie Middle School.
The changes involve the reorganization of three SVSD administrators. Doug Burnham was hired last year to be the new Snoqualmie Middle School (SMS) principal, but will instead become the district’s new Director of College, Career and Life Readiness. Taking his place as SMS Principal is current Twin Falls Middle School Asst. Principal, Megan Botulinski – a familiar face to many students and parents.
Another familiar face – Shawn Lawrence – will join the SMS staff as Botulinski’s Assistant Principal. Lawrence currently serves as the district’s English Language Arts K-12 Coordinator. Before that she taught numerous years at Chief Kanim and Twin Falls Middle Schools.
SVSD Superintendent Rob Manahan said, “I am delighted that all three of these proven leaders have accepted my offers to assume new roles for next year. I believe this transition will help support the needs of our middle school students and staff, while allowing for a full-time focus on expanding college, career and life-readiness opportunities for students throughout the district.”
The District said is was sharing the transition plans now, far in advance of re-opening Snoqualmie Middle School, “so that middle-level staff have more information as they consider options regarding staffing assignments for next year.”
Superintendent Manahan explained the changes to staff in an email earlier this week, saying:
“I believe our role as a community school district is to ensure that every student who graduates from our high schools will be able to take advantage of any opportunity that might present itself post graduation. This could include 2-year college, 4-year university, technical school, military, career or entrepreneurial opportunities. As we continue to prioritize this focus – which aligns with the district’s mission of preparing all students for college, career and citizenship – the School Board and I believe this warrants a full-time district-level position.
Doug Burnham was hired last spring as SMS principal to prepare for the school’s re-opening in fall of 2019, and will continue these planning efforts through this school year. Previously, he was an assistant principal and part-time Director of Career and Technical Education (CTE) at Tahoma School District. In his new full-time CTE role, he will be responsible for building upon the efforts at Mount Si High School and Two Rivers to forge community partnerships, in order to offer a variety of learning opportunities, career pathways, apprenticeships, internships and other experiences to help spark students’ interests. This role will also focus on fully utilizing the new CTE spaces at the new MSHS.
Since joining our district, I’ve been impressed with Mr. Burnham’s CTE expertise, passion, philosophy, and connections throughout the state, and feel he is uniquely qualified to take on the full-time role of Director of College, Career and Life Readiness.”
The new roles of Burnham, Botulinski and Lawrence are effective July 1, 2019. The district said details on plans for Botulinski’s replacement at Twin Falls will be provided at a later time.
The SVSD announcement did not say if Lawrence’s position would be replaced.
