She's been at Brighton Elementary School in South Seattle for 18 years and will miss staff and students there terribly. But Beverly Raines is also looking forward to her new role as principal at Lawton Elementary School.
Raines is a teaching veteran of 30 years and has been with Seattle Public Schools for most of them. Come September, the next chapter of her professional life begins at Lawton, where she will replace current principal Ed Noh.
Noh is moving to Hawaii with his family. There he will work in the administration department for the school district in Honolulu. He is also a member of the Covenant Baptist Church in the University District, and is planning a new ministry in Honolulu.
Raines said Lawton and Brighton have very different demographics and that difference will be notable, she said. But she's worked with children from all backgrounds.
When she begins her term in September, she said she would like to develop more student exhibitions, major yearend PowerPoint presentations discussing scientific discoveries or experiments, and autobiographies.
This past week she has been overseeing Brighton's exhibitions. Students there have competed major ecosystem projects and science boards with live experiments to demonstrate their work. Science projects begin with a questions, are put to task with experiments until a solution is found. The autobiographies are often powerful stuff.
"Those were good, considering knowing the kids and their lives and struggles," Raines said. "They brought tears to my eyes."
Raines has already received a warm written welcome from the Lawton Parent Teacher Association. When she arrives, she said she will be very open-minded and look hard at the data with student population. She will also assess writing skills and find out Lawton's status on the district's new writing project.
Seattle Public Schools Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson asked Raines to replace Noh. The decision surprised Raines. She found out three weeks ago and told staff a week after that. The students took it in stride, giving Raines "tight squeezes." But "the staff was harder hit," she said, noting that some had worked with Raines for several years.
One thing Noh mentioned to Raines was that the parent community at Lawton was very active and likes to work in tandem with the principal. "People," she said, "have been very cordial."
[[In-content Ad]]
