Julia has been in the education field since 1989, beginning her career as a bilingual teacher in the small heavily migrant community of Hamilton City. Her first day on the job, the retiring teacher left all her supplies behind and handed Julia a key chain as she left the room…Julia still has that keychain. By 1994 Julia had fallen in love, moved to the foothills, and began to work at Copperopolis Elementary.
With Copper school’s history of having a revolving door for administrators Julia found herself stepping in to the Principals shoes more than once. By the third time, when Stephanie LaLonde left Copper to become principal of Mark Twain, Julia was offered the job permanently, she accepted. She has served in that capacity for 10 years now.
On January 1, 2011 Julia stepped into yet another set of shoes by becoming Superintendent of MTUESD along with remaining principal of Copperopolis Elementary. In order to assist her on site at Copper when Julia was completing her Superintendant duties teacher Karen Vail was appointed to Lead Teacher. The plan was to start her day at the Copper site and that Karen, being a kindergarten teacher and relatively free after noon, would step into the principals shoes while Julia then scuttled to Mark Twain to complete her Superintendent duties. But you know what they say about the best laid plans. Julia finds herself working at home, in her car (safely pulled over to the side of the road when on the phone), in her office at Copper and in her office at Mark Twain, but quick to point out, “I couldn’t do it without Karen.”
When asked how she feels the transition has gone, she said with a huge smile, “I haven’t had time to think about it.” Pointing out that it is an “intense time” for anyone in administration but that the faculty and staff are giving 200%. “
Julia says she really enjoys being part of the Mark Twain community and meeting all the kids and families from Angels Camp, yet her favorite part of the job is that she is learning something new every day. “I love to learn… it’s exciting.”
Early in the school year, being the employee responsible for testing English as a second language children, Julia found herself pushing the envelope trying to complete almost one year of work into one trimester prior to her taking over as Superintendent. This upcoming year, Bobby Wells, a teacher at Mark Twain, will be receiving training in ESL testing. Julia stated that they (the administration) is addressing all the needs in the district and reassessing job responsibilities. “We are all working together really well, and we are dedicated to making this work.”
When asked about the impending budget cuts Julia says that the District feels that “keeping the class sizes smaller is a priority. We will continue to work on that.”
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