Leadership

 

 

POSITION	NAME	EMAIL	EXT (858) 484-1300
Principal	Darcel Glover	[email protected]
School Admin Asst	Monique Cordeau	[email protected]	3923
Assistant Principal	Naomi Shanks	[email protected]	3911
Assistant Principal	Leandro Galaz	[email protected]
School Secretary	Jen Bell	[email protected]	3904
Office Assistant	Angie Moore	[email protected]	3900
Finance	George Rosello	[email protected]	3915

 

 

I am extremely excited to serve you all as the principal of Black Mountain Middle School. I am a native San Diegan who attended SDSU where I was a member of the Aztec football team and received a degree in Environmental Design. Prior to my career in education, I performed as an architectural and environmental designer.  During that time I worked to expose young people to the joys and benefits of working within STEM fields.  As an educator,  I continued to develop students as an architecture and engineering teacher as well as an athletics director.  Before becoming the principal of Black Mountain Middle School, I served as an assistant principal at Westview High School for four years.  I draw my inspiration from supporting young people in their journey to find out Who they are? Who do they want to be? And ultimately, How do they work to get there?

 

I am delighted to serve the Black Mountain Middle School Community as Assistant Principal. I bring 25 years of experience in education, during which I have worked across divisions from Grades K-12, including many years as a middle school Humanities teacher, Department Head, Service Learning Coordinator, Diploma Coordinator, Vice Principal, and Principal. I grew up in the San Diego Unified School District, earned my BA at Yale University, and then trained as a teacher and completed my MA in Curriculum and Instruction at SDSU. After starting out as a classroom teacher in San Diego, I spent much of my career overseas, particularly in China, where I worked in English-delivery international schools serving multicultural populations preparing for university in English speaking countries around the globe. Education is development work—we work together every day to develop ourselves, and in doing so we develop and contribute to society. I am committed to education for justice and equity, and to facilitating learning environments that allow each and every student the ongoing opportunity to thrive.

It is wonderful to be settling back in San Diego after such a long time away, and I am grateful to create my home here, enjoying time spent with my daughter, our multicultural life, and my father’s cooking.

It is with great enthusiasm that I am joining the Black Mountain Middle School team.  I have been in education for 18 years at the high school and university levels.  I have spent most of my life in Southern California and came to San Diego to start college at UC San Diego.  I completed my Masters's at San Diego State and my counseling credential at National University.  I started my career in education as a school counselor at an alternative school and then moved to the comprehensive high school shortly after.  My background in social work led me to the Masters of Social Work program at Cal State San Marcos where I taught graduate students for 4 years.  I then returned to high school and have served as a counselor on special assignment for the past 2 years supporting administration.  While I have enjoyed my years with older students I am looking forward to supporting middle school students as my own children are in middle school. 

During my free time, I am currently pursuing a PhD in social work as well as enjoying all the moments I can with my family.  We love going on hikes around San Diego and we often have grandparents in town who we will take to the beach or the Safari Park.  We definitely enjoy taking advantage of the great weather in San Diego and end up outdoors often.  One of our favorite family vacation destinations is south of Rosarito to enjoy the beach and the food. One of my newest hobbies is growing a new music library of vinyl which right now includes Queen, Elton John, Pink Floyd, and Nirvana, amongst others. I enjoy the intentionality of selecting music on a record as compared to using playlists with hundreds of songs.