School district hires new MIHS principal

Published 4:05 pm Monday, March 26, 2012

Educator Vicki Puckett, a former principal of Woodinville High School, will become the newest principal of Mercer Island High School. She has been an educator for 28 years.

Puckett will be leaving her current post as director of Northshore School District’s alternative education programs, including the Secondary Academy for Success. She has worked as a principal and school administrator for both the Northshore School District and the Renton School District. Puckett was awarded the Educator of the Year in 2011 and was honored as a Distinguished Principal of the Year in KingCo School Districts in 2005.

Puckett was introduced on the Mercer Island School District website last week. It said in part, “Her 13 years as a high school principal in a high-performing, comprehensive high school and her experience with personalized learning in an alternative setting, along with her special services experience from years in the Renton School District will enable Vicki to lead a highly distinguished staff of educators at MIHS.”

Puckett, who attended the meeting with her husband and a close friend from Mercer Island, Vicki Sherwood, said she was impressed by the Island community and its support of schools.

“What attracted me was the commitment to the schools by the community,” she said.

But she is also anxious to get back to school with students after the last couple of years as an administrator of alternative programs.

“I have missed the interaction with students,” she said. “I like seeing them come in the door every morning and heading out in the afternoon. I want to know what they are doing.”

Puckett’s job with the school district will begin July 1.