The school welcomed Dr. Michele Lew into the administrative office on July 1. Since her arrival on campus, Lew has been actively engaging with students and staff on a daily basis.
Lew left her previous job as the assistant principal of Arcadia High School to become the very first female principal at Walnut High School since 1968, marking a significant milestone in the school’s 56 years of education.
“Representation is so important, whether that’s gender representation or different races. It’s important for [students] to see leaders and to be able to see [themselves] in them,” Lew said. “I’ve been given this opportunity to have a seat at the table, this metaphorical table of people having a voice and people being represented. Because I have the seat now, there’s going to be others after me that will also have that seat.”
Lew started her 20-year education career as a resident substitute at a special education school. After discovering her passion for teaching, Lew worked her way up the education system, dedicating the next 14 years of her educational career to teaching students with moderate to severe disabilities. Her success as an educator provided her a promotion to the administrative roles of assistant principal and most recently, principal.
“Being a teacher, you can see the impact you’re having on students. For me, specifically, working in special education, I had students for four years in my class, so I really got to know their families and work with the families as well,” Lew said. “When I was thinking about becoming an administrator and becoming a school leader, all of that excitement and passion I had for having an impact, I wanted to have it on a greater scale. And I [had] the opportunity to do that as a school leader, as an assistant principal, as a principal.
Being new to the district has its obstacles, and Lew admits that being unfamiliar with the school and its students has been the greatest challenge so far. Despite that, her transition to Walnut has been “seamless” due to the school’s “positive and welcoming community,” Lew said.
“Students, staff members, and parents have a lot of expectations for what [they] think a principal should be, and the challenge for me is that I’m learning about the community and how to navigate those things,” Lew said. “I was nervous that the transition would be hard because people wouldn’t be accepting of me here, coming from the outside, being a stranger, but it wasn’t like that at all. Staff members have been welcoming my leadership of the office staff and everyone has been so helpful to me.”
Lew’s passion for education is reflected in her efforts to make a difference at the school. Her goals for the school year include building relationships, connecting with students, parents and staff, learning the school’s culture and supporting all the programs at the school.
“[Dr. Lew] has a lot of energy and she’s great with the students and the staff. She’s extremely positive and she likes to engage with our staff and our students and it’s been great. I really look forward to all the new ideas she has to make our campus better,” administrative assistant Monique Estrada said.
According to Estrada, some of Lew’s new ideas include upgrading the school’s social media by incorporating more students into videos.
“It’s interesting, working for so long with another person, and then getting to know someone else, but what I’ve really enjoyed about Dr. Lew is that she’s really personable and really talks with our team,” assistant principal Andrea Poma said. “[She] is excited to embed herself into Walnut High School and get to know all of our programs and activities and all the really great things that we have going on here. [She] just wants to collaborate with us so that we can keep heading along positively with the Walnut way.”
