NEAH BAY — Matt Vandeleur, 60, of Poulsbo will be the principal of the Neah Bay Senior and Junior High schools for the 2014-15 school year.
Vandeleur was selected by the Cape Flattery School Board to replace Ann Renker, who will leave the district in June to take a position as a leadership coach at the Olympia Office of Student and School Success.
Renker has served as Neah Bay school principal for eight years. She has worked for the Cape Flattery School District for 20 years.
Contract negotiations
The district and Vandeleur are in negotiation on the final employment contract.
His first day in Neah Bay is expected to be July 1.
Vandeleur said he has been a frequent visitor to the Neah Bay area for hiking, kayaking and fishing.
“This is an area I was drawn to. A few months ago, I was in Neah Bay and was dreaming that it was a place I would like to relocate to. A couple of weeks later, I saw the ad for a principal,” he said.
Vandeleur is the director of secondary education at North Kitsap School District and is a past principal of Poulsbo Middle School.
He is a 1977 graduate of the University of Wyoming. He completed a second bachelor’s degree at Wyoming in 1987 and earned his master’s degree in administration from Gonzaga University in 1997.
He also taught in Greeley, Colo.
During Renker’s years as principal, test scores at the small high school on Makah land have been steadily improving.
Future plans
Vandeleur said he plans to examine the school’s data to see what the school has been doing that led to improvement and build on those successful strategies.
In areas where student achievement has been flat, there is still work to be done, he said.
