District officials voted Dr. Kelly Gilbert as the school’s new principal during the closed session of this month’s school board meeting on April 23. Gilbert will succeed current principal Rob Coppo, who will be stepping down from his role, officially on July 1.
In past years, Gilbert worked as the district’s Director of Assessment and Accountability.
“I’ve been, for the past several years, the Director of Assessment and Accountability, which means I get to be the one in the central office that oversees all things testing, whether we’re talking about [Advanced Placement] (AP), we’re talking about [California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress] (CAASPP), PSAT, you name it,” Gilbert said. “That comes through my office. I also do accountability, district planning, so different folks have heard me talk about the Local Control and Accountability Plan [LCAP] and things like that.”
Before working for the district, Gilbert worked in other educational spaces.
“I was a principal in East County, and my husband retired from the military,” Gilbert said. “So, we kind of lived a little bit of everywhere, and [I] was a math teacher for a long time. I’ve seen it all. There’s very little that makes me raise an eye.”
However, this school year, Gilbert began to experience what the role of a principal would look like.
“This year, I found myself in a position where they needed some help with an interim principal at San Dieguito Academy,” Gilbert said. “So, I came over to SDA, and I’ve been interim principal there since Sept. 11.”
Once Coppo announced his leave, Gilbert began to considering the position for principal at this school.
“None of us knew that [Coppo] was ready for change,” Gilbert said. “And so once that popped up, I had started having some conversations like, ‘Oh, maybe, maybe this would be a good fit.’”
The school community culture and environment drew Gilbert’s interest.
“All of our [district’s] schools are great,” Gilbert said. “The thing about Torrey, though, is it just has this magnetism. It has this warmth to it, and not only is it great with athletics and academics, but there’s just this community spirit in this culture that you can’t not feel when you get on campus.”
Managing such a large campus, Gilbert hopes to create a tighter sense of community.
“Everything comes back to a sense of belonging,” Gilbert said. “And so when I think about Torrey, it’s our [District’s] biggest high school. [There are] almost 2,800 kids here. At the end of the day, my job is to make sure that not only can kids get what they need here when they need it, but also they feel seen, valued, heard, respected, that they have the opportunity to contribute.”
While implementing changes, Gilbert plans to communicate with teachers and students.
“I want to listen to our kids,” Gilbert said. “What do our kids say that we need? What do our teachers and our staff members say that they need? What do our families feel like our community [needs]? I really want to just hear from a lot of voices and think through, ‘Okay, what’s the experience like?’”
Gilbert also plans to use the California Healthy Kids Survey as a guide.
“Everybody took that assessment back in December, and I don’t know if you remember taking the California Healthy Kids survey,” Gilbert said. “I use a lot of data in my job. I plan to carry that over. And so, kind of as I’m getting to know the campus, getting to know the schools, I’m really going to be looking at a lot of data to see where we’re at.”
Gilbert is “excited” to build relationships with staff, students and families.
“So my technique or strategy…is really that relationship building is my most important piece,” Gilbert said. “I’m just excited to build relationships with people. I think that’s … the thing that I care most about. I really love that.”
