New principals ready to greet students Nuevos directores listos para recibir a los estudiantes
There will be new principals at seven Santa Fe Public Schools during the 2019-20 school year. Amy Biehl Community School: New principal Felicia Torres was born and raised in Albuquerque. She earned a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from New Mexico State University and a master’s degree from the College of Santa Fe in curriculum and instruction. She has taught in Phoenix, Rio Rancho and Santa Fe Public Schools.
Torres has called Amy Biehl Community School home since it opened almost 10 years ago and has served as a third and fourth grade teacher, technology teacher, interventionist, science coordinator and SAT leader, and most recently as an assistant and interim principal.
Aspen Community Magnet School: Tina Morris was principal at Tesuque Elementary last school year and has 17 years of experience as a school principal and 25 years of experience in public education. Morris has led both elementary and K-8 schools and worked at the state level in both New Mexico and California.
Morris is a native New Mexican who has worked in Clovis, Rio Rancho and Santa Fe. She has undergraduate and graduate degrees from Eastern New Mexico University.
Capital High School: During the past 10 years at Capital, new Principal Jaime Holladay has worked as an English teacher and assessment coordinator, and she’s also taught English as a second language courses. She previously taught for five years in Nevada.
Holladay received a Teachers Who Inspire award in 2014 from nonprofit Partners in Education. In receiving the award, she was lauded for helping organize parent nights for Spanish-speaking families and assisting homeless families to find shelter. She also has served as a mentor for teen moms through the Mother Tongue Project.
Chaparral Elementary School: As a resident of the Chaparral neighborhood, Erica Martinez-Maestas says she has a vested interest in seeing the community thrive. Martinez-Maestas was born and raised in Santa Fe and attended Piñon Elementary, De Vargas Middle School and Santa Fe High. She earned a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree from the University of New Mexico and has 18 years of experience in education. She is married with six children and said she enjoys spending time with my family, gardening, hiking and traveling.
Mandela International Magnet School: New Principal Randy Grillo began teaching high school Spanish and English as a second language in rural Washington in 1998. His career led him to Mexico City, where he taught English and Spanish for three years at an International Baccalaureate school.
After moving to Santa Fe in 2008, Grillo taught at Santa Fe High School for eight years. Prior to this school year, he served as a program coordinator, Spanish teacher and assistant principal at Mandela.
Nye Early Childhood Center: New Principal Christi Foreman has worked for Santa Fe Public Schools the past five years, most recently as a director of special education. She has more than 30 years experience in education and said she is committed to working with the Nye community to provide the best outcomes for children through positive learning experiences.
Tesuque Elementary School: Over the past 18 years, Capital High graduate Cheryl Romero has been all around Santa Fe Public Schools. Romero began her education career in 2001 as a special education resource room teacher at Nava Elementary. She became a special education teacher at De Vargas Middle School in 2003, and in 2013 became a special education teacher at Capital High. In 2016, she was named assistant principal at Capital High School and in 2017 she became associate principal at Santa Fe High. She served as principal at Amy Biehl Community School, a K-6 school, in 2018 before joining the district’s human resources team.