Gail Danner of Central Kitsap High School Named 2015 Assistant Principal of the Year
Assistant Principal Is a Key Part of Distributed Success at Central Kitsap High School
Gail Danner is the Washington State 2015 Assistant Principal of the Year. The award is bestowed by the Washington Association of Secondary School Principals (WASSP), a governing board of the Association of Washington School Principals (AWSP). The honor alternates yearly between a middle level principal and a high school principal. This year it’s the high school’s turn.
In the busy world of the high school assistant principal, addressing student behavior is central to the role. Some of those behaviors can be downright paralyzing to an administrator and school’s ability to function normally. Managing student behavior while simultaneously getting students career and college ready, Danner shines in her role at Central Kitsap High School in Silverdale, Washington.
Danner is an integral part of a three-administrator team that believes in distributed leadership across all programs. Central Kitsap High School Principal, Stephen Coons, said “Gail is really a co-principal in her own right. For the past seven years with us, she has helped craft the vision of excellence and has steered high-impact programs. These have resulted in our success as being one of the nation’s top two percent challenging public high schools, as measured by participation in Advanced Placement programs. In addition, Gail has been part and parcel to CKHS’ success as a twice-honored Washington Achievement Award winner for closing the achievement gap”.
Danner was instrumental in the school’s transition to a four-year high school as the school took on ninth graders for the first time in 2014. She conducted a series of transitional meetings and programs with all stakeholders and three junior highs, and helped craft a new master schedule that not only included 350 more students and 13 new staff members, but reinvented the program delivery of Central Kitsap High School.
“Gail is also an intellectual and a deep thinker. Whether it is process or content, or leadership in the instructional framework, her articulate and experienced manner helps her speak with confidence and wisdom when she addresses both young and adult learners” added Coons. “It’s hard to walk away from a session led by Gail without pause for reflection or without concrete plans for future actions”.
Danner has served as assistant principal at Central Kitsap High School for the last seven years. Prior to that, she taught mathematics in the Port Townsend School District. Gail earned her bachelor’s degree at Pacific Lutheran University and a Master’s in Education Administration at Seattle Pacific University in 2008.
Governor Jay Inslee will honor Danner for her Assistant Principal of the Year award at the Washington Educators’ Conference in Bellevue in late October. She also will be recognized in the spring of 2015 in Washington D.C. as part of the pool of candidates for the National Assistant Principal of the Year Award.
##
MEDIA CONTACTS
AWSP | David Morrill | 360.357.7951 | david@awsp.org
CKSD | David Bell | 360.662.1620 | DavidB@cksd.wednet.edu