Two now vie for CCHS principal's position

By MICHAEL MARESH
mmaresh@lahontanvalleynews.com, mmaresh@lahontanvalleynews.com
March 19, 2008, 9:16 AM

Comments Print Email

When School Superintendent Carolyn Ross sits down later this week to interview the two candidates for the high school principal position, she will know their backgrounds.
Either Interim Churchill County High School Principal Robbin Pedrett or Lahontan Valley High School Principal Keith Boone will be recommended to the school board next week.
Ross will make her recommendation by the end of the week.
Boone, who has a bachelor’s degree from Western Montana College and a master’s in education degree from the University of Nevada, Reno, has worked in education for more than 15 years.
A graduate of Helena Capital High School in Montana, Mont., Boone worked in Montana for five years in education before moving to Churchill County in 1997.
He worked at the junior high school for seven years, teaching social studies and coaching high school football, wrestling and cross county. At the junior high, he coached wrestling and track and field.
In 2004, Lyon County School District hired Boone as an assistant principal at Silver Stage Middle School.
The following year, Boone learned the CCSD was opening the alternative high school and was looking for a principal.
He said the Churchill County high school principal position is an opportunity he could not pass up.
“It’s a great opportunity to work with that staff and kids,” he said. “It seems like the next challenge in my career.”
Early in his education career, the LVHS principal set a goal to become a high-school administrator.
“I feel as a school administrator you have the opportunity to make things happen that you don’t have as a teacher,” he said.
Pedrett, who has been in education for 32 years, graduated from UNR with a bachelor’s in physical education, health and speech and drama.
Her first job out of college was at Churchill County High School from 1975 to 1980, where she taught physical education, heath and journalism. She also served as the advisor for the school newspaper and coached basketball, volleyball and track and field.
In 1980, she left Churchill County to take a high school teaching position at Lake Tahoe, where she taught physical education, health and math and coached volleyball and basketball.
In 1987, Pedrett moved to Douglas County and worked as a teacher in physical education, science and health. She also coached volleyball and basketball there.
She received her master’s in educational leadership in 1992, while working for the Douglas School District.
In 1994, the interim high school principal took a teaching position in Gardnerville at Pau-Wa-Lu Middle School. Pedrett was born and raised in Gardnerville.
Five years later, she was named the interim vice principal at the middle school, and the following year was named the principal, a position she held until retiring in 2007.
After John Riley retired as the Fallon high school principal in the middle of the school year, the district hired Pedrett to serve out the remainder of the year.
Pedrett applied for the current opening because she felt it was a way to continue with what has been occurring at the high school.
“We started a lot of student improvement plans that can improve the standards and help us move forward on student achievement,” she said.
She also became emotionally attached to the district, students and staff members.
“I never took the job with a laid-back attitude that it would not become personal,” she said. “We feel like there is an obligation to continue with what we started.”
She said the choice the district has to make is to continue with what the high school has started or have another person come in with his own plans.
She said both are very viable options, adding either choice would serve the district well.
The school board will vote on the superintendent’s recommendation on Tuesday night.