Tina Mercer has been announced as Roosevelt Elementary School’s new principal, one of a number of leadership changes at Redwood City School District schools heading into the fall.
RCSD Superintendent Dr. John Baker announced Mercer’s appointment after the school’s former principal, Dr. Rosemary Wood, accepted a promotion to become assistant director of the department of special education.
Mercer, a Stanford University graduate, was previously assistant principal at Hoover Community School since 2017 and is expected to transition to her new role today. From 2007 to 2017, she taught fourth and fifth grades at Orion Alternative Elementary. From 2003 to 2007, she taught second and fifth grades at Taft Community School.
“In addition, Ms. Mercer has experience in the private section as a marketing executive in her native Australia,” according to the district. “She launched a career in the early 90s as a marketing manager for corporations such as Fisher-Price, Mattel, and Ansett Australia.”
RCSD has also announced that Lupe Guzman, assistant principal at Kennedy Middle since 2014, is now assistant principal at Hoover Community School. Previously, Guzman was principal at Fair Oaks Community School and from 2001-2009 she held roles of assistant principal, bilingual third grade teacher and first grade teacher intern.
In an earlier announcement, Diane Prystas was stated as the new principal at Roy Cloud School, which also has a new assistant principal in Kristy Jackson.
Prystas, who replaces the departed Dana Hardester, brings close to two decades of experience as a school and district office administrator, most recently has principal at Stevens Creek Elementary in the Cupertino Union District (since 2012). Previous to that, she was principal at Cherry Chase Elementary in the Sunnyvale Elementary School District (2008-2012), and previously held administrative roles in the San Jose Unified School District.
“Ms. Prystas also has more than a decade of experience as a classroom teacher,” the district said.
Jackson served more than a decade as a teacher with the San Mateo-Foster City School District, and also spent her first years as an educator with the Redwood City School District. She has joined the faculty and staff at Roy Cloud as assistant principal, filling the void from Assistant Principal Kristen Fielding’s departure from the district.
Earlier this spring, veteran educator Julie Thompson was announced as the new principal of Fair Oaks Community School. She’s a “bilingual educator with international teaching experience in South America,” according to the district. She was the director of human resources for the Campbell Union High School District since 2016, an adjuct lecturer at Santa Clara University in 2015-2016, director of compliance and new teacher development at The Foundation for Hispanic Education from 2014-16, and she held assistant principal positions at Burlingame High (2010-2014) and Mt. Eden High (2008-2010). Before that she was a teacher since 1996 both locally and in Ecuador.
Also, Anna Herrera, formerly assistant principal at Selby Lane School, is now serving as the principal for Taft Community School, and Leslie Daniele, the district’s coordinator of the Gifted and Talented Education Program, English Language Arts (ELA), and English Language Development (ELD), will step into the assistant principal vacancy at Selby Lane.
Herrera served at Selby Lane since 2017, and previously worked as consultant, trainer and facilitator at the Sobrato Foundation (2010-2017). From 1993-2010, she was a teacher in the San Mateo-Foster City School District.
Since 1996, Daniele has held teaching rolls at Roosevelt Elementary, Hoover Community School, Taft Community School, the Nueva School and also in the Jefferson Elementary School District.
