Many changes have occurred within administration over these past four years. In 2024, Jennifer Baker stepped down as principal leaving her colleague Nicole Morgan to take over the role. The school’s business manager Kathy Cosgrove also retired that same year leading to Deborah Teicher filling the position. This is just a fraction of the shifts that have taken place within admin in the past. This trend didn’t stop this year. On the contrary, it led to new as well as familiar faces filling the position of assistant principal: Brett Imamura and Melanie Schwed.
Brett Imamura previously held a position as a social studies teacher and assistant principal at Sligo Middle School. Moving from a smaller middle school to a large high school was a significant adjustment. However, a desire to be a high school teacher was prominent in Imamura’s educational career.
“I’ve always wanted to be a high school teacher at some point,” Imamura said. “When there was an opportunity for me to switch schools and join a new team, I saw Walter Johnson was open and available and it was a really good place to work and be, so I made the switch. And now I get to experience high school stuff from the staff side.”
Administration was always in Imamura’s path. Ever since teaching students in college, his love for the profession grew.
“I love being a teacher. I love everything about being a teacher. If for whatever reason tomorrow I would wake up as a teacher I would be happy,” Imamura said. “I think what made me want to move into administration is you have a different impact on students.”
This passion for students is shared between Imamura and Schwed. In addition to Schwed’s previous position as a staff development teacher, in her nine years at WJ she has also held the positions of AP Psychology teacher, Honors Modern World teacher as well as Leadership Class Sponsor: a resume reflecting a love for students.
“It was really weird not teaching. I loved the work I was doing. That was a big part of why I wanted to move into the assistant principal position because you’re back working with kids a lot more than in staff development,” Schwed said. “Staff development is kind of the big picture theory of how to make the school run well while I feel like assistant principal is you’re in the muck making it happen. You’re making decisions everyday that are hopefully in the best interest of our students and our staff and that’s what motivated me to move into the role.”
Serving students doesn’t stop when a student leaves her office, though. Having worked extensively on pushing WJ’s School Improvement Plan in her role as a staff development teacher, Schwed learnt the importance of data which she carries into her new role.
“It’s a tool, it’s a power to make data driven decisions because you don’t wanna just say ‘Oh, I think this is the problem and I think this will fix it.’ You wanna say ‘Here’s what the data tells us we need to do better in and here’s what the data and research says can help with that,’” Schwed said.
With regards to the potential challenges that may come with inconsistencies in administration, the issue is often offset by a passion for the school and a drive to improve it.
“[Staffing changes] are often because of the increasing student numbers, or staff who leave get a promotion, or they wanna be closer to home. One staff member left and came back saying the drive was worth it. Another person retired and they had been at WJ for 32 years, their whole career,” Assistant Principal Regina Rodriguez said.
