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Battle Ground schools get new leadership

District announces changes in personnel, administration

By Adam Littman, Columbian Staff Writer
Published: June 4, 2017, 7:48pm

Battle Ground Public Schools has announced several administrative changes coming to the district.

Mark Ross will take over as superintendent for the retiring Mark Hottowe.

Andy Schoonover will take over as principal at Summit View High School, replacing Bill Penrose, who is retiring. Schoonover is currently the assistant principal at Pleasant Valley Middle School. Prior to that, he was the athletic director and assistant principal at Prairie High School. He also taught social studies at Lewisville Middle School and Battle Ground High School.

Ken Evans and David Kennedy will switch positions. Evans, principal at Yacolt Primary School, was named to the same position at Glenwood Heights Primary School. Kennedy, the current Glenwood Heights principal, will take over as principal at Yacolt Primary School. Evans has been at Yacolt since 2003. He taught sixth and seventh grade at Laurin Middle School from 1993-2003. Before working at Glenwood, Kennedy was an assistant principal at Daybreak Primary School and Daybreak Middle School beginning in 2007, with teaching experience dating back to 1997.

Krishna Smith will be the new assistant principal at Pleasant Valley Middle School. Smith has worked in the district for nearly 11 years, starting out as a math and English language arts teacher at Lewisville in 2006, and then at Daybreak Middle School as a math and science teacher from 2007-2016.

Erick Suksdorf and Heather Ichimura were named assistant principals at Battle Ground High Schools. Suksdorf has been a special education program coordinator since 2013 at the school. Ichimura is coming to Battle Ground from Mercer Middle School in Virginia, where she has been an assistant principal since 2015 and held various leadership and teaching roles for the Loudon County Public Schools district since 2011. They are replacing Karla Kalian and Dora Swart, who both resigned for personal reasons.

Lindsay McQuiston will serve as a new assistant principal at Prairie High School, where she has worked as a math teacher since 2012. She is replacing Jann Byrd, who is retiring.

Denny Waters will be the district’s deputy superintendent, where he will oversee the Teaching and Learning and Operations departments. Waters has been the district’s executive director of special services for five years.

Ellen Wiessner will fill Denny Waters’ role, and take over as the new executive director of special services. Wiessner has been with Battle Ground since 1993, working as a school psychologist, behavior consultant and director of special services.

Cynthia Christensen will take over for Wiessner and serve as Battle Ground’s new director of special services. She has 21 years of experience in education, and has held various positions for Evergreen Public Schools, including principal and vice principal.

Meagan Hayden is the new director of school finance. She has been the interim director of school finances since MaryBeth Lynn retired earlier this year. Prior to that, Hayden was Battle Ground’s lead fiscal accountant, a position she held since 2013.

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Columbian Staff Writer