The Issaquah School District will soon have a new member in its midst.
Superintendent Steve Rasmussen announced Tuesday, March 3 that Diane Holt will be taking over the Issaquah Valley Elementary principal position beginning in July.
“I’m really looking forward to joining the Issaquah School District,” Holt said. “I’m so excited to get to know everyone and really start embracing the community.”
Holt is currently the principal at Green Gables Elementary in Federal Way, and has been for nine years. Before that, she worked as a curriculum specialist and elementary teacher in the Tahoma School District.
She was among the more than 50 people who applied for the position when current principal Jennell Hawthorne announced in late January that she would be leaving at the end of the year.
She’s moving out of the state to get married and begin a family, according to a letter she sent to the community.
District officials began February by creating job listings, conducting interviews and site visits, and ended the month by hiring Holt, who was attracted to the district for a myriad of reasons.
The district’s mission particularly stuck out, she said. It states that “students will be prepared for and eager to accept the academic, occupational, personal, and practical challenges of life in a dynamic global environment.”
“That they want students to be both eager and academically prepared, and that they care about personal expression and interest … I just think that’s a really balanced approach to education, and I think that’s very important to have,” Holt said.
She is also impressed by the Ends for Students, and the Everyday Math program, which she uses at Green Gables Elementary.
“I’m just really happy to join a district with a common philosophy,” she said.
Holt met with the Issaquah School Board on Wednesday, and in the coming weeks will meet the IVE staff and PTSA. During the last week of school, she will be touring and meeting the students.
“Mrs. Holt is a proven powerful instructional leader who is tenaciously focused on students,” Rasmussen wrote in a press release issued March 3. “On behalf of Issaquah Valley students, I felt privileged to invite her to the Issaquah School District.”
And as she takes over the position and settles into the school, Holt’s goals are modest — to get to know the students and community, and celebrate who they are and what they do, she said.
“One of the things that I sensed during my interview is that they were really looking for someone who would embrace, love and stick with the school, and that’s my plan,” Holt said. “When I start, we’re all going to learn and work together.”
