New leadership team at Lake Tahoe Unified School District

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - There will be three new principals at Lake Tahoe Unified School District (LTUSD) this fall as well as leaders in four newly created positions at the district office and the digital learning academy. Those new positions are Director of Elementary Education, Director of Secondary Education, Associate Superintendent/Chief Business and Operations Officer, Associate Superintendent/Chief Education Officer & Program Director, Principal of Elevated Digital Learning Academy

Dr. Todd Cutler, LTUSD Superintendent, introduced the new principals at the last Trustee board meeting.

Principals

There was a lot of interest in the open positions with several candidates submitting their applications. Interview panels with parents, current principals, and district staff met with finalists and the new principals for Tahoe Valley Elementary, South Tahoe Middle School and South Tahoe High School were selected.

Jennifer Kloczko

Ms. Kloczko will be the new principal at Tahoe Valley Elementary, replacing the retiring Christina Grubbs. She was born at Barton Memorial Hospital and spent the first five years of her childhood in South Lake Tahoe, has twenty-three years of experience in education. She has served as a Principal, Assistant Principal, K-12 ELA Co-Leader, Title I Coordinator, New Teacher Support Provider, Teacher, Speaker/Presenter, and Consultant/Coach. In addition to her Administrative and Teaching Credentials, Ms. Kloczko has a pending Master’s degree in Educational Leadership and a Bachelor’s degree in Liberal Studies. Her background also includes multiple awards and honors, such as two-time teacher of the year.

Manuel Sanchez III

Mr. Sanchez was selected as the new principal at South Tahoe Middle School to replace John Simons who has moved to another position. Mr. Sanchez has twenty-two years of experience in education. He has served as an Assistant Principal, Summer School Principal, Alternative School Founder/Advisor, Scheduling Coordinator, AVID Site Team Member/Manager, Science Department Chair, and Teacher. He has also developed a standards-based grading system, an internship program for students, district-wide common assessments in Math and Science, and an Outdoor Education Curriculum. In addition to his Administrative and Teaching Credentials, Mr. Sanchez holds a Master’s degree in Applied School Leadership and a Bachelor’s Degree in Forest Resource Science. He is also bilingual in Spanish.

His career spans from the Stockton/Galt area to Durango, Colorado.

Justin Zunino

Mr. Zunino was hired as the new principal at South Tahoe High where he has been the Assistant Principal since 2015. He is replacing the retiring Carline Sinkler. Mr. Zunino has twenty-three years of experience in education. He has served as an Assistant Principal, SBAC Assessment Coordinator, Safety Committee Chair, Student Code of Conduct Committee Chair, MTSS Developer, Developer of teacher-led AVID workshops, Student Attendance and Achievement Review Team Leader, Teacher (for both general education and special education), and Coach. In addition to his Administrative and Teaching credentials, Mr. Zunino holds a Master’s degree in Educational Leadership and a Bachelor’s degree in Liberal Studies, all from Chico State.

Mr. Zunino is married to his best friend, Nicole Zunino, counselor at South Tahoe Middle School and together, they have twin girls, age 7.

Kelly Martin

Kelly Martin is the new principal for the Elevated Digital Learning Academy. For the last seven years she was the LTUSD TK-8 Curriculum and Educational Technology Coordinator. Mrs. Martin has been an educator in Lake Tahoe Unified School District for 16 years. She has been a Coordinator of Educational Technology and Elementary Curriculum, a Educational Technology coach as well as an elementary teacher at Tahoe Valley Elementary School. Mrs. Martin holds her multiple subject credential, administrative credential as well as a Masters Degree in Educational Technology, and a Bachelor's degree in Women's Studies.

District positions

Dr. Annamarie Cohen

Dr. Cohen has recently been appointed to the position of Associate Superintendent of Educational Services. She is in her 6th year with LTUSD where she has been serving as the Director of Special Services and in the position of Special Education Local Plan Area (SELPA) Director for the Tahoe Alpine SELPA. She has primarily been responsible for the assurance that all individuals with disabilities receive a free appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment and maintaining a system at the regional level for identification, assessment and placement of disabled students. As Associate Superintendent, she works to oversee special education programs, health services, and many other educational services and programs across the district. Previously, Dr. Cohen spent 19 years teaching students with severe disabilities across ages and grades to provide a continuum of services in a variety of educational environments. Additionally, she worked as a Part-Time Instructor at the University of Nevada, Reno, for 10 years, teaching classes in the area of Special Education.

Andrea Salazar

Andrea Salazar is now the Associate Superintendent/Chief Business and Operations Officer. She has over twenty five years of experience in Accounting and Finance. She has served as a Controller/HR Director, Director of Financial Planning & Analysis, Finance Director and Accounting Manager in the private sector and more recently was the Director of Fiscal Services at Lake Tahoe Community College. In addition, she holds a Masters degree in Organizational Leadership, and a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting.

John Simons

Mr. Simons has been the principal at South Tahoe Middle School since 2015 and will be moving to his new position as Director of Secondary Education. He has twenty-eight years of experience in education. He has served as a Principal, Assistant Principal, Department Chair, Teacher, Club Coordinator, and Coach. In addition to his Administrative and Teaching credentials, Mr. Simons holds a Master’s degree in Organizational Leadership from Chapman University and a Bachelor’s degree in Biology from California State University Humboldt.

Mr. Simons brings to this position the experience of designing and implementing Professional Learning Communities to specifically address targeted improvement in student achievement, first instruction, and creating a climate and culture of inclusion and equity and diversity across all of our classes and programs. Mr. Simons is working closely with Mrs. Sinkler at the High School to start the development of an equity centered guiding coalition to address identified equity issues that exist in our secondary school programs. As a transformational leader, has brought proactive steps to prevent failure and ensure success with the High Reliability School Model to South Tahoe Middle School, where he has spearheaded a five year plan to transform the instructional landscape. The transformational leadership and collaboration that Mr. Simons brings to the Educational Leadership team, including the Director of Elementary Education, and all of our school leaders, brings the ability to work with teams to identify needed change, assist in creating a vision to guide the change through inspiration, and execute the change in tandem with all of the committed staff within LTUSD.

Mr. Simons is married to his wife of 29 years, Amy Simons. Together they have two children, Kody and Elissa, and two grandchildren ages one and four.

Alan Reeder, EdD

The new position of Director of Elementary Education is being filled by Alan Reeder, EdD. Reeder is coming to the position in July from Plumas County School District where he has been a principal since 2018. Dr. Reeder has thirty years of experience in education. He has served as a Deputy Superintendent, Human Resources Director, Principal, Assistant Principal, Advisor, Dean of Students, Teacher, and Coach with Lyon County School District and Washoe County School District.

In addition to his Administrative and Teaching Credentials, Dr. Reeder holds a Doctorate degree in Educational Leadership from Nova Southeastern University, a Master’s degree in Educational Administration & Leadership from University of Southern Mississippi, and a Bachelor’s degree in Biological Sciences/Secondary Education and General Sciences from the University of Nevada - Reno.