Rainier Beach will get second principal

Rainier Beach High will soon have two principals, the first in a number of changes the district is planning as it works to live up to its promise to provide high-quality schools in all neighborhoods.

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 be one of just a few times 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 go to school closer to home. This fall, the new boundaries will apply only to students entering kindergarten, middle and high school.

Seattle School Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson said she's proud of the progress Rainier Beach High has made under Gary's leadership, but the school still "has a very steep hill to climb."

Rainier Beach remains underenrolled and its test scores, despite some gains in recent years, remain low. But it recently added a number of advanced classes, is working to improve instruction in all classes, and continues to ramp up its arts offerings.

Because the school is adding new programs and is expected to have many more students under the new school boundaries, Goodloe-Johnson said there is more work than one principal alone could do.

Escobar's primary focus will be instruction, she said, while Gary's will be operations and community outreach. But she also stressed that the two principals will work together.

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 when they open in September:

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

• 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. That school, which will have a Montessori program and a general-education program, 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 from "Old" Hay) will move to Sand Point Elementary in Northeast Seattle.

• 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