Blandford Elementary Principal and Hollingworth
Vice Principal Announced
ROWLAND HEIGHTS, CA – JULY 21, 2008 – Rowland Unified School District Superintendent, Dr. Maria Ott, is proud to announce the following administrative selections after a comprehensive selection process for Blandford Elementary and Hollingworth Elementary Schools:
Mercedes Lovie, Principal of Blandford Elementary School in Rowland Heights
Rowland Unified School District (RUSD) welcomes Mercedes Lovie as new Principal of Blandford Elementary on August 1. Lovie has extensive experience and success in working with parents, community, staff and students to attain improved student achievement. For the past four years she was Principal of South Pasadena Middle School, where she was noted for increasing instructional time by more than two hours a week for all students and increased parent /teacher communications through collaborative efforts with PTA. Lovie is also an adjunct professor in the Educational Leadership Program for Point Loma Nazarene University. She was Assistant Principal for Wilson Middle School in Glendale, teacher specialist and curriculum coach for Toll Middle School and began her career as a Lead English as a Second Language Teacher at John Muir Elementary School.
Lovie has diverse experience in curriculum planning, staff development, grant writing and working with Federal programs. Lovie was a team leader and reader for the California Distinguished Schools Program from 2000 – 2006 and created, wrote, won and administered two million dollar Federal grants for Teaching American History.
She earned her Master of Science in Instructional Leadership in Curriculum and Instruction from National University, and Bachelor of Arts in Speech Communication from California State University, Los Angeles.
Jason Gass, Vice Principal of Hollingworth Elementary in West Covina
Jason Gass came from Riverside Unified School District, where he was Assistant Principal at a National Blue Ribbon School, Alcott Elementary School. Prior to that, he was interim Assistant Principal at Orrenmaa Elementary School in the Alvord Unified School District, where he began as an elementary teacher for grades 2, 4 and 5. Gass excels in data management systems for student achievement and has also effectively created systems to monitor student discipline, textbooks and assessments. Gass earned his Master of Arts in Educational Leadership from Cal Poly Pomona and his Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology & Health Promotion from California State University, Fullerton.
The Rowland Unified School District is proud to serve 17,500 students at 23 elementary and secondary schools in the communities of Rowland Heights, Walnut, La Puente, City of Industry, and West Covina. Permits allow students from other communities to attend our schools. More than 5,000 adults (16+) are also served by the Rowland Adult and Community Education School. For more information about Rowland Unified, call (626) 965-2541 or visit www.RowlandSchools.org.
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