News

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Superintendent Sarvis announces selection of Shawn Carey to lead Dos Pueblos High School

At tonight’s meeting of the board of education, Superintendent Brian Sarvis announced the selection of Shawn Carey as the new principal of Dos Pueblos High School, effective July 1, 2010. Board Vice President Cordero reported that Ms. Carey’s selection had been ratified by 4:0 vote (Board President Ed Heron was absent). Ms. Carey will replace Mark Swanitz, who was recently appointed principal of Santa Ynez High School, effective July 1.

The principal position is a step up for Shawn Carey, who has been serving as an assistant principal at Dos Pueblos since 2008. Most recently, she has been responsible for curriculum, instruction, and assessment. Her administrative experiences include oversight of activities, athletics and student discipline and safety, and coordination of staff development, teaching, and learning. Ms. Carey’s instructional experience includes ten years as a Dos Pueblos teacher of Advanced Placement World History, Modern World History, International Baccalaureate Theory of Knowledge, EXCEL 1 and 2, and Spanish. As an assistant principal she supervised student teachers as part of a UCSB/Santa Barbara School District partnership. She has worked as a student teacher at San Marcos and Dos Pueblos high schools as well as Santa Barbara Junior High. During the summer of 2004, she was an instructor in the Santa Barbara Youth Research Project, charged with the task of guiding students in investigating the Latino achievement gap. She also served as a bilingual instructional aide for one year.

Ms. Carey has extensive leadership experience, including serving as chair of the English Learner Department at Dos Pueblos, where she worked closely with staff and parents; leading a team of teachers on the English Language Leadership Committee in collecting, developing, and sharing instructional strategies to benefit all students; and serving as a team member in the District/UCSB Center for Educational Leadership, which focused on developing a comprehensive vision for school leadership.

Ms. Carey has a bachelor’s degree in Latin American Studies from the University of Virginia and a master’s degree in education from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Ms. Carey said, “I believe my personal connections to the students, staff, and families that comprise the Dos Pueblos community are invaluable at this critical juncture in the school’s history. The relationships I have forged over time with various stakeholder groups have resulted in a mutual respect and trust, which will undoubtedly be necessary as Dos Pueblos rises to the challenge of increasing student achievement in the face of increasing budget constraints and accountability measures.” She continued, “My familiarity with and stewardship of the Dos Pueblos campus and community has engendered a passion for sustaining the excellence for which DP is known. I will be working closely with Mark Swanitz in the days and weeks ahead to assure a seamless transition in leadership.”

The salary range for this position is $113,074-$125,847. The contract period is 225 days.

Constructed in 1966 on a 40-acre site, Dos Pueblos High School currently serves more than 2,300 students in grades 9-12. The school is located at 7266 Alameda Avenue, Goleta, CA.