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Haines named Crane charter principal
An informational meeting will be held Wednesday for those interested in having their child attend the Gowan Science Academy.
Parents across Yuma County with students going into first through fourth grades next year are invited to attend the meeting at the H.L. Suverkrup Elementary School cafeteria, 1590 S. Avenue C., at 6 p.m.
The Crane Elementary School District has selected a new leader for its district-sponsored charter school.
Yuma native Jamie Haines was named principal of the Gowan Science Academy, which will open this fall.
“It's a great honor to be able to give back to our community with this school and offer this choice for parents who have that desire to push their students toward science, technology, engineering and math,” said Haines.
After attending schools within the Crane district herself, graduating from Cibola and then the University of Arizona with a bachelor's in animal science, Haines taught second and fifth grade at Ronald Reagan Elementary School for six years, math at Crane Middle School for two years and is in her second year at H.L. Suverkrup Elementary as the professional development coach.
“My true interest is my love of helping kids learn, as a principal I am able to influence more students than I could in the classroom so that is really my biggest draw to it,” she said about the job. “I saw this as a perfect fit with my science and math background.”
With statistics from the U.S. Department of Labor showing that 15 of the 20 fastest growing occupations projected for 2014 require significant math or science preparation, she noted that it is essential to offer this option to students.
“If we aren't educating our students to be very successful in science, engineering, technology and math (STEM), than we are doing them a disservice,” Haines said. “That's one of the major reasons that we want to offer this choice for parents.”
She said for those students who already love STEM, this is an opportunity for them to still learn the core subject areas anchored around science.
“We are going to start with the Next Generation Science Standards to build our curriculum. We know in schools science often times gets cut because there's such a huge focus on reading and math, which is good but, it's going to be a little different here because we're starting with science as our foundation so it's the expectation. We're still obviously going to be teaching reading and math and writing but it's all going to be through that focus of science.”
She said that this will further aid Yuma students in competing for jobs on a global scale.
She added that because children are natural-born investigators, her hope is to foster, build and grow their investigative spirit to enable them to be productive citizens, ready for the work force.
Haines said the district has received a good response from parents interested in the school but is still accepting applications.
If more than 60 applications are received in a grade level by Feb. 15, Haines said, the selection process will be done through a lottery with first preference given to Crane district residents.
Applications for the campus can be picked up at any district school or can be printed from the district website and turned into any Crane school or the district office, 4250 W. 16th St. For more information, contact Haines at jhaines@craneschools.org or 373-3533.
Visit gowan.craneschools.org or Facebook at www.facebook.com/gowanscienceacademy or the district's website at www.craneschools.org/gowan for additional information.
Sarah Womer can be reached at swomer@yumasun.com or 539-6858. Find her on Facebook at Facebook.com/YSSarahWomer or on Twitter at @YSSarahWomer.
