New at SJI School District

San Juan Island School Dis­trict announces New Ele­men­tary School Prin­ci­pal and New Spe­cial Ser­vices Director

Caspar van Haalen - Contributed photo

The new Fri­day Har­bor Ele­men­tary School Prin­ci­pal is Cas­par van Haalen, who will be mov­ing to the island from the Tuk­wila School Dis­trict where he served as an ele­men­tary inter­im prin­ci­pal. Pre­vi­ous­ly, Mr.van Haalen was a prin­ci­pal in Forks, WA. He was select­ed after a rig­or­ous process that includ­ed inter­views, a demon­strat­ed under­stand­ing of ped­a­gogy, and a meet and greet with ele­men­tary school staff.

Accord­ing to Mr. van Haalen, “My career in edu­ca­tion spans two coun­tries, mul­ti­ple dis­tricts, and grade lev­els rang­ing from Preschool to 12th grade. My edu­ca­tion­al phi­los­o­phy is based on stu­dent-cen­tered, whole-child think­ing, plan­ning, and orga­niz­ing. The prin­ci­pal open­ing at FHES was a rare oppor­tu­ni­ty I didn’t want to miss. My wife and I are hon­ored to be here!” 

Becky Bell - Contributed photo

San Juan Island School Dis­trict also wel­comes back Becky Bell as our Spe­cial Ser­vices Direc­tor.  Becky worked for the San Juan Island School Dis­trict from 2012 — 2017. Ms. Bell has recent­ly been com­mut­ing to Orcas Island School Dis­trict and accord­ing to Super­in­ten­dent Kari McVeigh, “Becky has been missed in the dis­trict, and will now be able to con­tin­ue her exem­plary work with spe­cial needs stu­dents and their fam­i­lies a bit clos­er to home.”

Super­in­ten­dent McVeigh expressed her appre­ci­a­tion for the attrib­ut­es each of these new Admin­is­tra­tors bring to the dis­trict, “We are look­ing for­ward to a dynam­ic and pro­duc­tive school year.  Wel­come Becky and Caspar!”

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