Jennifer Brown, a quadrilingual educator and member of the Bar Association, is taking over as the principal of El Toro Elementary School on East Main Avenue.
Brown started her career as a bilingual second language teacher with the Los Angeles Unified School District. She then became a Spanish immersion teacher in San Diego for a two-way bilingual “total immersion” program that partnered with UCLA.
She has also served as a vice principal before becoming principal in San Ysidro School District. Her most recent job was as the assistant superintendent of human resources at San Ysidro.
Brown speaks English, Spanish, French and Russian and is a member of the Bar Association; likely her fluency in Spanish will help with communicating with parents at El Toro Elementary whose population is roughly 40 percent Hispanic.
“The spirit here is so noticeable for someone coming from outside of the district. It’s remarkable the sense of collaboration and the focus on the work here,” Brown said at the June 26 MHUSD board meeting, where she was introduced to the school board.
Brown takes over El Toro amid a somewhat rocky time, as the elementary school moved into year three of Program Improvement in 2012 – meaning students did not improve enough on state tests and the school itself faces stringent requirements until it moves out of Program improvement. With the statewide goal being 800, El Toro nearly scraped that mark with its Academic Performance Index scores of 793 and 794 in 2011 and 2010, respectively.
Former El Toro principal Patrick Buchser is moving to the helm at Jackson Elementary.
New leader at Paradise Valley
Also, introduced at the meeting was Erika Benadom, who will take over as principal of Paradise Valley Elementary School, located at 1400 LaCrosse Drive. It is Benadom’s first try at a principalship, and she takes over for Phil Duncan who retired this year.
Paradise Valley has consistently achieved high API scores, the annual measure of state tests for public schools. In 2011, Paradise Valley scored 870 and in 2010 scored 881 – and ranked nine out of 10 statewide.
Benadom most recently worked with SchoolCity, a data management, accountability and school improvement solutions software company, where she was promoted to vice president of product and solutions after her stint as an education program manager.
“I’ve spent some time in Morgan Hill the last few years,” Benadom said at the school board meeting after she was introduced to the school board. “I’m thrilled to be here full time.”
Her first position in education was as an elementary school teacher in language arts and social studies, she moved to a technology specialist, then became the director of technology all for the Lennox School District in Inglewood.
