School's Out, But the Principals are Back at Soquel Elementary

By Brad Kava

It was like one of those days when all the living presidents join up for a photo op. Only this time it was eight principals of Soquel Elementary School, posing at their favorite school for posterity.

Being principals, there were no demerits. They all showed on time for their 10 a.m. shoot. Some were retired; some had other jobs in education; one was a rock climber. 

All said there was something special about this school of 440 Soquel students with 100 years of history. Their tenure dated back to 1964.

The principals were Curt Bowman, Richard Patterson, Thom Dunks, Carl Pearson, Kathleen Howard, Eric Gross, Cata Fitzgerald and Gerri Fippin. 

"There's such a great community feeling to this school," said Gerri Fippin, who takes the reins from Cata Fitzgerald next month. "I only applied to one school and this was it."

Fippin has been working in the Scotts Valley School District office until landing this dream job. 

Fitzgerald is moving to Modesto to be around her grandchildren; Gross works in administration for the Santa Cruz City School District; Howard, who was top administrator for the Soquel district now does leadership training; Pearson also does leadership training for principals and climbs rocks in Yosemite.