Franklin Elementary principal candidates meet community
Three vie for position vacated by Bill Holman, who leaves for Moscow after six years
June 14, 2018
Franklin Elementary School held a public forum Thursday for community members to meet the three finalist candidates applying to be principal. The current candidates are Stephanie Bray, Kristi Queen, and Deborah Crabtree.
Bill Holman , the current principal, will be taking a job in Moscow after working at Franklin for six years.
Stephanie Bray
Bray currently works as a first grade teacher at Sunnyside Elementary. She has worked as a first grade teacher at two other elementary schools in Phoenix, Arizona.
Bray received her master’s degree in teacher education from WSU in 2016, graduating with a 3.95 GPA.
“My goal for Franklin is that I want all students to learn,” she said at the forum, “I want all kids at Franklin to feel welcome.”
Bray has been involved in many leadership programs throughout her career. She said on her resume that she believes in “empowering teachers through collective leadership.”
Coming from a teaching background herself, Bray knows the importance of a teacher’s relationship with administrative staff.
“We need to get teacher’s knowledge base stronger,” she said.
Kristi Queen
Queen currently serves as an assistant principal at Explore Middle School in Mukilteo. She has also worked as an assistant principal at Shorecrest High School in Shoreline.
Queen graduated from Western Washington University in 2004 with a master’s degree in education administration.
“As a single working I found homework to be challenging,” she said, when asked about homework. “We shouldn’t send kids home with work they can’t do.”
Queen said she sees the importance in good leadership. She has worked in many educational roles, including creating a leadership team at her most current job.
She called herself “an experienced and trusted assistant principle” on her resume.
Deborah Crabtree
Crabtree currently serves as a principals intern at Sunnyside Elementary School. She worked previously at Highlands Elementary School in Renton, where she taught first, second and fourth grade.
Crabtree graduated with a master’s degree in education from Grand Canyon University in 2006.
Crabtree has worked closely with administrative staff, once spending a summer working closely with a principal, she said. There she learned the management side of administration, such as budgeting and scheduling.
“I want to have happy kids,” she said.
Crabtree has worked with four different leadership teams and draws on her experiences with those to shape the type of principle she wants to be, she said.
“There’s a lot of diversity and differences,” Crabtree said. “We need to be looking at those as strengths.”
