Waimea Middle School welcomes new vice principal

Amy Kendziorski has joined Waimea Middle School as vice principal to help solidify schoolwide student support programs, said Principal Matt Horne.

An experienced school administrator who grew up in Wisconsin and who has 23 years experience in public education, Kendziorski began her teaching career at Waianae High School in 1990, where, in addition to teaching, she coached track and cross country and chaperoned three student trips to Kahoolawe. She has a bachelor’s degree in special education from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a master’s degree in educational leadership from San Diego State University.

Career highlights include 13 years in Colorado’s Durango School District 9R where she most recently served as executive director of student support services overseeing special education, alternative education, health, safety and discipline for the 4,500-student district that included two high schools, a juvenile detention facility school, two middle schools and seven elementary schools.

Prior to that position, she was principal at Colorado’s Escalante Middle School for five years, after serving as assistant principal there for four years. While there, she facilitated the school’s successful inclusion practices so that all students were learning and growing together. Also while at Escalante, she secured grant funding to build a low ropes course, as well as a solar greenhouse and school garden, both of which enhanced the school’s elective course offerings.

She also has taught elementary, middle and high school students in both rural and urban settings in Hawaii, Wyoming, California and Colorado.

“The thing I am most proud of are the relationships I formed between students, teachers, school administrators and the communities I have lived and worked in,” she said.

Kendziorski’s return to Hawaii is something she always thought would occur. She left Waianae High to attend graduate school, but she knew all along she would be back “later in my career.” She is married and her husband, Nik, is the archivist at Fort Lewis College in Durango, and her stepson, Andrew, is starting his sophomore year at the same college. When not at school, she can most often be found outdoors. “I love hiking and being in the water, snorkeling and paddling, as well as watching sunsets from the beach.”

Kendziorski joins Waimea Middle School midway through the school accreditation process wherein faculty, staff, families and the community have identified solidifying student support programs as a schoolwide priority. The school is the community public middle school in Waimea, serving about 280 sixth to eighth grade students. It became the state’s first public conversion charter school under Act 2/2002. The school’s recently updated mission is to “empower students with the skills, values and cultural understanding to successfully navigate high school and beyond.”