Dana Rhinehart

Name of school: Creekside Elementary

Principal: Dana Rhinehart

Amount of time as principal: Second year

Grades: 3-5

Total number of students: 527

Total number of teachers: 27 (two shared with Creekside Primary)

Total number of support staff: 30 (some shared with Creekside Primary)

New programs: “We are a ‘Leader In Me’ school. Leader In Me teaches the kids leadership qualities and seven habits of highly effective kids. It brings it down to a framework that helps every kid be a leader. By giving our children more leadership roles, it improves the culture at our school. It starts out with teaching children to be proactive, begin with the end in mind, put first things first, think win-win, seek first to understand and then be understood, synergize (know when to ask for help and be open to other’s ideas) and sharpen the saw (taking care of yourself).”

What makes Creekside Elementary special: “I think we have a positive culture. We have a lot of parental support, and everyone works together to keep that positive culture going. I have had the opportunity to work with Mr. Matt Scott, and we work together to make sure we take care of our kids.”

Primary objectives for 2018-2019: “To go back to our curriculum and work through our standards. We have new pacing guides in elementary math and reading. We want to make sure each child is where they need to be and follow up with our enrichment activities. We have a Science Technology Engineering and Math lab we are working on, and we want to incorporate more of that in our students daily activities.”

What the principal is looking forward to: “Seeing the kids as they progress and learn. Seeing the excitement on their faces as they learn. Getting to know the new families who are moving into our community. We hope to see more parental involvement, and we are doing some things to help that along. We are taking a group of fifth-graders to Washington, D.C, this October, and that is always a highlight.”