Local Teacher Takes Over As Principal

By JON SWARD

Pojoaque Valley Intermediate School

Local: New principal to oversee school’s move to Jacona site

The Pojoaque Valley Intermediate School didn’t have to look too far to find its new principal.

Pojoaque Superintendent Toni Nolan Trujillo announced last Wednesday that Julianna Trujillo-Lujan will succeed retiring intermediate school principal Robert Quintana.

Trujillo-Lujan has been a teacher in the Pojoaque Valley Schools for the past 18 years and has spent the past five years as a fifth- grade teacher at the intermediate school. She has been involved in the development of the intermediate school’s comprehensive Educational Plan for Student Success, which stresses staff training, especially in math and science, as a path to better education for the school’s students.

Trujillo-Lujan, who resides in Jacona, said the school will continue to implement the educational plan under her leadership.

“We have a lot of things in place,” she said. “We’re not really looking to change anything; we’re just going to keep evaluating things to decide what needs to be tweaked.”

Trujillo-Lujan will oversee the intermediate school’s planned move from the district’s Pojoaque campus to its Jacona site at the start of the 2008-2009 school year.

The intermediate school will remain home to the district’s fifth- and sixth-grade students during the 2007-2008 school year. The following school year, however, a sixth-grade academy will open at the Pojoaque campus, and the intermediate school will move to a new building in Jacona, where it will accommodate the district’s fourth- and fifth-grade students.

Fourth-graders are scheduled to move to the new building after the 2007-2008 winter break.

Trujillo-Lujan said she hopes to reach out to the district’s fourth-grade teaching staff this year before that class’s impending departure from Pablo Roybal Elementary School.

“One of the things I want to do is start developing a rapport with some of the fourth-grade staff together with our staff at the intermediate school,” Trujillo-Lujan said.

Although she is familiar with the way the intermediate school works, Trujillo-Lujan expects her new role to be a learning experience, especially at the beginning.

“There are some things that are definitely going to be a big learning curve,” Trujillo-Lujan said. “The teachers need to understand that I’m going to make some mistakes but that we’re all in this together.

“There’s some things I bring, like my connection to the community and my relationships with the teachers, that are definitely a real plus, but there are some things that are going to take me some time to figure out.”

Contact Jon Sward at 428-7650 or jsward@sfnewmexican.com.

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