Hart Board appoints 4 assistant principals
The William S. Hart Union High School District named four new assistant principals Tuesday to fill positions at Hart High School, Saugus High School, Placerita Junior High School and an undetermined school.
Kullen Welch was named assistant principal at Hart High School; Genevieve Peterson Henry was named assistant principal at Saugus High School; Kyra Madsen was named assistant principal at Placerita Junior High School; and Jannelle Olivier was named assistant principal at a school to be determined.
The nominations at Hart and Saugus will be effective March 1, and the nominations at Placerita and at a soon-to-be determined school will be effective July 1.
Kullen Welch
Currently, Welch serves as a physical education teacher at Rio Norte Junior High.
He began teaching in the Hart district in 2002, when he worked at both Hart High, Arroyo Seco Junior High and Rio Norte Junior High.
Outside of his teaching duties, Welch has served on the site professional development team, district advisory committee, school leadership team and curriculum council. He has also acted as a professional development coach and department chairperson, and he was selected as Teacher of the Year.
Welch has also coached baseball, basketball and track, worked as a summer school administrator and summer school coordinator and filled in as an assistant principal for extended periods of time.
Before joining the Hart district, Welch taught at Rosamond High for two years in the Southern Kern Unified School District.
Welch holds a bachelor’s degree from The Master’s University and a master’s degree from the University of La Verne.
Genevieve Peterson Henry
Prior to being named the assistant principal at Saugus High, Henry acted as the district’s English Language Learner Teacher on Special Assignment.
She was appointed to the position in 2014 to coordinate the district’s English Learner program.
Before becoming a Teacher on Special Assignment, Henry worked for seven years as an English and ELD teacher at Golden Valley High where she was also an ELD coordinator, leadership team member and track/cross country coach.
For the past two summers, Henry served as a summer school administrative intern.
Before joining the Hart district, Henry worked as a Humanitas English teacher at Verdugo Hills High for 11 years.
Henry holds a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree from California State University, Northridge.
Kyra Madsen
Madsen currently serves as assistant principal of Golden Poppy Elementary School in the Palmdale School District.
In this role, Madsen is responsible for professional learning communities, student testing and data, GATE, school site safety and ASB.
Prior to her work in the Palmdale School District, Madsen worked as a teacher at Rio Norte Junior High.
In addition to her teaching work, Madsen acted as an administrative intern, instructional coach, department chair, team leader and professional development team coach. She also acted as a summer school administrator at West Ranch High and Placerita Junior High.
Madsen holds a bachelor’s degree from CSUN and a master’s degree from University of La Verne.
Jannelle Olivier
Due to an upcoming retirement, Olivier will be placed at a “school to be determined” in July.
Currently, Olivier is a math teacher and leader at La Mesa Junior High.
Prior to moving to the Santa Clarita Valley, Olivier worked as a vice principal at both the junior high and high school level in the San Diego Unified School District.
In these roles, she was responsible for a variety of areas, including the instructional program, professional development, master schedule, assessment and data, school safety and WASC.
Since she began her career in 2002, Olivier served in a variety of roles in San Diego, including a math teacher, teacherleader and AVID coordinator, teacher leader/ master teacher, academic coach, categorical coordinator and common core cluster support teacher for secondary mathematics.
Olivier holds a bachelor’s degree from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo and a master’s degree from University of California, San Diego.