Vicki Sacco has been appointed principal for West Seattle Elementary School at 6760 34 Ave. SW.

The school, formerly High Point Elementary has been renamed too.

She has been an educator for 15 years in Brevard County Schools, an area of east-central Florida that includes the Kennedy Space Center. She taught intermediate grades at Croton Elementary School and became the assistant principal at Croton in 2000. In 2005, she was promoted to principal at Riverview Elementary School.

During her tenure at Riverview, the school earned Florida’s highest school rating of “A” for three consecutive years and consistently scores an “A” or “B”.

Ms. Sacco’s professional preparation includes a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Florida Atlantic University and a master’s degree in educational leadership from Nova Southeastern University.

"I want to transform this school," Sacco said, "into a school excellence and the pride of the community, where student achievement is in the top ten percent of Title One Schools in the nation. We talked about that today and that's our vision we're creating as we come together as a school."

The school has "about 40" people on the faculty and more than half the staff are new. "I have a teacher from the Bronx, (...) I have a reading coach that was recruited from California, my school business officer is from Las Vegas."

Seattle Public Schools (SPS) received grants totaling $5.76 million over three years for three schools under the School Improvement Grant program. Funding for the first year totals $2 million. The three-year grants – awarded by the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) with funding from the federal stimulus package – will support school improvement plans at Cleveland High School and Hawthorne and West Seattle elementary schools.

You can learn more about the School Improvement Grant plan for West Seattle Elementary here.

To get to her goal Sacco said it means keeping in mind some core values. "A relentless pursuit that each child is successful. So that may mean coming together as a group with several different teachers involved and seeing what that child needs. When every child's needs are met then you reach that goal." she said.

"It also has to do with the instruction in the classroom. Top notch teachers are the bottom line."

People have different learning styles and Sacco is deeply familiar with how to approach this issue. "It's called 'Differentiated Instruction' which means you know what you're teaching, so you have your objective, but it may be taught to children using different methods."

To lead teachers to excellence Sacco said, "You have to have high expectations of your teachers (...) and work toward a shared vision." It's her belief that once she and the teachers create that vision, it becomes the core plan that gets revisited and used as the basis for evaluation throughout the school year.

She replaces current principal Gayle Everly, who will be serving as co-principal of Bryant Elementary with Kim Fox.

Sacco said while she takes a measured approach to the new job she's excited about it too. "When I get up every morning I am charged. I love my job. I love this opportunity. I love being a Principal. I've been a Principal before so I came here with experience. This is the opportunity of a lifetime to really see a school transform."

West Seattle Elementary bbq and walk through, August 30, 11:00-1:00

Students and families attending West Seattle Elementary for the 2010-2011 school year are invited to a BBQ and walk through of the school on August 30th. This will be a great opportunity to meet our new principal, plus teachers and other staff, and see your classroom before the first day of school on Aug 31.

The event will begin at 11:00 a.m. and end promptly at 1:00 p.m.