Rainier Beach High to get a second principal

Rainier Beach High will soon have two principals, part of an effort to improve that school.

Lisa Escobar, now principal at The Center School, a small, alternative high school at Seattle Center, will become a co-principal at Rainier Beach with Robert Gary Jr., who has been principal there since 2006.

It will one of just a few times that the district has had two full-time principals at one school. The move also is the first in a number of "educational investments" the district plans to make as it phases in new school boundaries, under which more students will be going to school closer to home. As part of that shift, the district has promised to provide high-quality schools in all neighborhoods.

This fall, the new boundaries will apply only to students entering kindergarten, middle and high school.

In a prepared release, Seattle School Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson said she's proud of the progress Rainier Beach High has made under Gary's leadership, and the district hopes to build on his success by appointing a second principal there. Rainier Beach remains underenrolled, but it recently added a number of advanced classes and ramped up its arts offerings.

Goodloe-Johnson said one of the two principals will focus primarily on instruction, and the other will focus primarily on operations and community involvement. The second principal post will be funded out of the school's existing funding, she said.

The district also announced Monday who will lead three new elementary schools it plans to open in September.

• Green Lake Elementary Principal Cheryl Grinager will move to nearby McDonald Elementary in the fall.

• David Elliott, now principal at Coe Elementary on Queen Anne Hill, will lead a new school to be opened at the "Old" Hay building on Boston Street. The district also announced that school will have a Montessori program and a general-education program. The school will be an option school, meaning students must apply to go there.

• Dan Warren, the principal at nearby Hay Elementary on Garfield Street (a different school than "Old" Hay) will move to Sand Point Elementary in Northeast Seattle, near Magnuson Park.

• The district also announced that Cindy Nash, who heads the district's Interagency Programs, will replace retiring John German at Middle College High School, and Susan Derse, assistant to the district's high-school director, will be interim principal at Interagency, a series of alternative middle- and high-school programs.

Linda Shaw: 206-464-2359 or lshaw@seattletimes.com