Brook Knoll Elementary School’s principal, Phillip Menchaca, will leave the school later this month to take another principal position in San Jose.
Menchaca has accepted the principal’s job in the Alum Rock Union Elementary School District at Linda Vista Elementary School, a 700-student visual performing arts feeder school in east San Jose. His last day at Brook Knoll is Jan. 27.
“The opportunity came up, and it looked good,” said Menchaca, 40. “It’s different, way different, than what I’m doing here (at Brook Knoll).”
Menchaca said he regrets leaving the school in the middle of the academic year, but the position was right.
“Nothing usually opens in the middle of the year,” Menchaca said. “The timing is bad.”
He added that he and his family, including his two children, will remain in Scotts Valley. He said he expects to be part of parent-teacher associations and the Scotts Valley Educational Foundation.
“It was a very difficult decision, because my family is here,” Menchaca said.
He hopes to foster parent involvement at his new school, remarking that the level of parent involvement in Scotts Valley inspires him.
“The parents here are so active and involved,” Menchaca said. “That was so huge for me.”
Menchaca served 1½ years at Brook Knoll as the successor to longtime principal Cathy Frandle. He began at the school in July 2010 after serving as an elementary school principal in Salida, near Modesto.
Previously, he had been a teacher, assistant principal and principal for alternative programs, homeless programs, a charter school, a middle school and an elementary school.
“I’ve had a lot of different experiences,” he said. “And it’s all been beneficial to me.”
Scotts Valley Superintendent Penny Weaver announced that the Scotts Valley School Board is scheduled to approve an interim principal at its Jan. 24 meeting and will launch a full-scale search for his replacement this spring. A permanent principal will join the district for the 2012-13 school year.
“He’s been a positive addition to Brook Knoll Elementary,” Weaver said. “We wish him well.”
There was significant interest in the position in 2010 before Menchaca was hired. According to the district, 56 applications were received when the position opened.
